Herbststurm

Sometimes it amazes me, how many films with a modest budget can look really beautiful these days. As is October Gale. The scenes on and around the lake are beautifully portrayed on this film. The sound was also very good. The storm certainly came threateningly out of the speakers.

The film is ment to be part of the psychological thriller genre. Not everyone likes this type of film, especially since they are often slow to develop at first. But once they get going, they can pull the viewer out of their seat, into the story. However, there are two important conditions for this! First, the characters need to be explored very thoroughly so that the viewer can bond with them. Second, there has to be a plot that slowly ramps up the tension and comes recommended to a big climax, a big showdown between good and evil.

Unfortunately, October Gale fails on both counts. The actors have done their best, but the confused storyline does not allow them to put their soul into the characters. The heroine, the antihero, and the villain have all clearly experienced tragedy. But the storyteller fails to bring this to the viewer. We see a lot of flashbacks, but as a viewer you have the feeling that you are still missing a lot to see the whole picture. There are many loose ends!

Worse still, the promised climax is not there. The confrontation was not a bitter life-and-death struggle, not a terrifying chase, or not even just a little bit thrilling. No, the film only offers a faint light version of what we've seen in so many other thrillers. It is over before you as a viewer realize it.

Mainly because of the lack of the promised climax, I give October Gale only 5/10. A shame as it was filmed to carry a much better plot than this.

Some movies are just tough to sit through. 'October Gale' is one of them. You really need the patience of a saint to get through it. Director/writer Ruba Nadda creates scene after scene of absolute nothingness that the audience is expected to sit through and hope whatever's coming is worth the wait. It's not. The premise seemed interesting enough and with a different script could have made for a really exciting, interesting movie. Instead we are left with this.

Even a late cameo from the always great Tim Roth isn't enough to save things. You could tell Nadda had banked a lot on this performance by Roth being the Savior of his film but when you give his scene a moments thought you realise just how irrational and senseless the whole thing is. Patricia Clarkson in the lead role gives a real snoozefest of a performance and Scott Speedman never really gets out of first gear either. He seems as bored by the script as the audience will be. I don't think Nadda ever really settled on what he wanted the film to be. One second the characters are falling in love, the next they're fighting for their life, the next they're discussing the meaning of life. There's a lot going on here but sadly none of it's good.

After a doctor (Patricia Clarkeson) is widowed, she takes time away to tend to her old island cottage only to be caught in a storm and a deadly revenge plot between strangers. The movie is determined to emphasize the unspoken and realistic moments, and a sense of purpose in life that is lost with the death of the husband (Callum Keith Rennie in flashbacks). But even from the mundane tasks of maintenance on the cottage to first aid for a fugitive on her doorstep, she still has to deal with life that presents itself. When she is at her most rootless, the opening scenes are hand-held; the more steady presentation begins once she heads out on the lake for what seems like a joy ride or to vent and feel some control. Even when her boat has engine trouble and she has to accept help, she has asserted something and taken control. As the main plot of the movie kicks in with the intrusion of her visitor, there is danger on the horizon and the impending arrival of a vengeful two-man posse manages to avoid the tempo of a High Noon template while still taking its heroine somewhere interesting and leaving her with new options to consider. The presence of Tim Roth is welcome and well used as he brings a matter-of-fact sense of menace. As in her previous collaboration with director Ruba Nadda, Clarkeson let's us meet her half way with what might otherwise be said and what might be expected. Notice that Ruba Nadda has recently director for shows like NCIS, and I look forward to her doing more of her own features.

Premiering during a special presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), October GALE is a dramatic thriller that's too devoid of tension to be considered thrilling and far short of emotional and relatable characters to be considered dramatic.

It's a shame because the opening sequence of sweeping Parry Sound long shots and Steadicam shots of Helen (Patricia Clarkson) opening and cleaning the family's vacation cottage offered a promising segue into what appears to be (on the surface), a study in normative bereavement with a murderous twist. Likewise, the film's setting is a beautiful contradiction of comfortable isolation that quickly dissipates as the story's nonsensical and improbable choices become too incredulous to be believable.

Grieving the loss of her husband (played in silent flashbacks by Callum Keith Rennie) in a wild storm the previous year, Toronto doctor Helen Matthews (Clarkson) decides to return to her family's isolated cottage in an effort to move on. After single-handedly opening up the warm and comforting home in Georgian Bay, Helen begins the arduous task of sifting through and removing some of the mementos accumulated during their 32-year marriage.

The visual and aural planes of this transition from acceptance to perseverance are well crafted; the non-diegetic musical score gives way to diegetic empathetic sounds of the bay that feel crisp and renewing. Fortuitously so considering Helen shortly thereafter comes face-to-face with an unexpected and mysterious gentleman (Scott Speedman) crawling and bleeding on her floor with a gunshot wound. After treating his wound and grabbing her rifle, Helen waits for the stranger to wake up and when he does, Will is vague about the attack and about his life thus far until local handyman Al (Aidan Devine) decides to pay Helen an unexpected visit. Will relents and reveals that he had spent time in prison for manslaughter after a bar-fight and that the guy's father 'is not going to stop until he's killed me'.

As the storm gains momentum outside, Helen agrees (stupidly I might add) to allow Will to stay in her home as they lazily prepare themselves for Al and the gunman to return. The script here is utter wish-wash: writer/director Ruba Nadda (INESCAPABLE) fails to build any suspense and tension for the ensuing action causing it to fall flat, it fails to explain how Helen's appears to be a survivalist doctor who's also a crack shot, nor the circumstances of Will's incarceration and Helen's inconceivable trust in a man she just met.

Clarkson and Speedman should however, be applauded for their performances: extracting every nuance they could from their two-dimensional characters to at least be creditable. Overall, if 'it's OK' are the only two words I can come up with after 91 minutes, it's probably safe to say you might want to wait to watch it on video.

You can catch me on my handle @TheSachaHall or at The Hollywood News.

I was wondering why this movie with a such a good cast like Patricia Clarkson, Scott Speedman and Tim Roth managed to have a mere 5.1/10 (current rating when writing this review)

But when I started watching it, it started to make sense

In the first half hardly nothing of substance happens and there are plenty of everyday scenes of Patricia Clarkson reading a book or remembering a romantic moment with her husband or fixing with the wood- pile for the fireplace and stuff like that with very little dialogue as she's by herself in the beginning

Tim Roth doesn't show up until the last 20 minutes, he's supposed to be menacing but comes off as bored

The plot itself also doesn't make a lot of sense to me, it's extremely simple really but the characters relations to one each other are daftly written, and it's boring, extremely slow and could have easily been cut down 30 minutes and you wouldn't have missed anything