The Sleepwalker

The filmmakers here make sure the viewer gets to see lots of nudity and explicit sex, perhaps to divert attention away from a weak and unfulfilled storyline. The movie has some decent performances and maintains an air of intrigue throughout, but I was constantly frustrated by its seeking shock value rather than giving us serious explanations of apparent dark secrets in the characters lives.

The film is almost entirely shot with 4 actors, and set in a forested and isolated New England town. Gitte Witt, as Kaia, is trying to renovate a home she inherited from her recently deceased father, and living with her boyfriend Andrew (Christopher Abbott).

One night she receives a late night call from her estranged half sister Chris (Stephanie Ellis), asking Kaia to pick her up at the train station. They were once close, growing up in the same house with their father (they have different mothers) but apparently a horrible occurrence happened that caused this estrangement. When Kaia picks her up, Chris tells her that she is pregnant and has not told her fiancé Ira (Brady Corbet) where she went. We also find out Chris is a sleepwalker, and has been so since they were quite young.

Ira is informed of her whereabouts and he appears the next day at the house. The remainder of the movie will pretty much center on the drama and tension in the interpersonal relations of the four characters. Unfortunately, it came across to me as increasingly contrived and it became more and more uncomfortable to me to watch it all play out.

The Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold makes her feature film debut here, and she also co-wrote the script with Brady Corbet, who as mentioned portrays Ira in the movie.

All in all, aside form the psychosexual theatrics that play out here, it seemed to me that many of the anticipated resolutions of the dark past never really occur and when we do get one near the very end it seems weak and leaves too much hanging in the air.

I think you should give this movie a chance it's worth watching if you get through the hurdles of some unclear dialogue. Luckily, I always have my subtitles on whether they're English or foreign language speaking movies. The movie has a good story and it has some skin, some of the music at the end was not well thought of with the heavy drumming. I had a feeling from the beginning about the movie that the wife Kaia played by Gitte Witt was going to be with her sisters fiancé, somehow they seem to be in harmony just being in presence of her sister. I think the movies would have been better with some tidying some of the scenes. This is the first movie for Mona Fastoid directing p, I'm going to gave her a chance and watch her other newer movies. This Norwegian movie was shot in the US and presented in English.

Lots of whispering and mumbling meant I had to watch the first 20 minutes with the controller in my hand turning it up and down. No subtitles unfortunately.

I understand the audio creates the mood but it has to be audible at least.

Scandinavians have an open approach to nakedness and sex but that we already knew, so nothing new here. Further an extremely irritating half-sister of whom you wish that she will be killed or kill herself, the sooner the better. And to make it really 'interesting' an end without explanation... Be sure not to give this to somebody as a present or the friendship will be over... unless that would be the intention off course.

A beautiful film with a story that was stimulating, sexy, and kept me guessing. Recommended.