Abigail Harm

Inspired by the Korean folktale "The Woodcutter and the Nymph", The story follows Abigail a single woman living in New York, working as a reader for the visually impaired. Her life is changed when a stranger pays a visit and shares the tale of a celestial creature with a robe. Abigail goes out to find this creature, and suddenly her life in the city is changed as this tale seems to come alive in her world. Abigail Harm gets off to a slow start, but when the relationships between the characters are outlined there is an incredible amount of emotional power game that is permeated by passion and obsession bubbling beneath the surface." Stay with me, it's too dangerous out there," this is the central point of the play, showing the existential loneliness of Abigail who wants to be loved. It will be easy to compare the atmosphere to a Terrence Mallick film with a closed apartment hidden in the seams of the narrative collar of the film. Because the filmmaker goes beyond his illusory tributes. Abigail Harm is a character work imbued with the style of its director. It is a complex work that still hides many mysteries. As for Amanda Plummer's performance, she is above and beyond any description and she embroiders Abigial' multiple moods with ease. This is my favourite Plummer film followed by Michael Winterbottom's Butterfly Kiss. The excellence is also evident through the film's characters. The three most significant roles, Amanda Plummer (Abigail Harm), Will Patton (Visitor / Narrator), and Tetsuo Kuramochi (Companion) have deeply complex character sheets. Not necessarily on the surface, as no direct background is given, but their actions say all the more. To say too much here can be destructive, which of course I do not want.

A quiet movie about needing to be honest in love, even if it's borne out of loneliness and an aching desire to have a connection with someone in this too-harsh world. It's based on a Korean folktale that's briefly summarized early on, something that sounded experimental and interesting. To his credit, Lee Isaac Chung certainly didn't play it safe here, and Amanda Plummer delivered a fine performance (that guttural voice she channeled while having a fight comes to mind).

One of the problems I had with the film, however, is that the parable is presented too literally - I mean, the "captured creature" or nymph is a man prancing about a deserted building in the nude like a woodland animal, for goodness sake. He communicates very little and behaves like a child, which made feeling the connection between the two difficult. A level of indirection would have helped. Chung also presents this story in such a minimalist way that many of scenes become tedious, even over just 80 minutes. It was hard to really feel the power of the emotions because of these choices. I liked what I think he was trying to do, but for me it fell short.