Sister Midnight

Sister Midnight is one of those rare films that starts off feeling raw and real, and then slowly descends into something completely unexpected. What begins as a story about a woman trapped in a dull, affectionless marriage turns into a surreal, psychological journey filled with dark humor and horror. Radhika Apte is absolutely brilliant-her performance is both haunting and deeply emotional. The film's second half is wild, unsettling, and hard to look away from. It won't be for everyone, but if you're into bold, strange cinema that pushes boundaries and makes you think, this one is worth watching. It stays with you.

The movie is exactly what its title suggests - Nothing. If the purpose of the movie is to portray the mundane, uneventful life of the protagonist, there are many ways to showcase that than to make the movie itself dreary and mundane. The first exchange of dialogue is after 8 minutes which should put things into perspective.

The newly weds struggle to settle as the wife quickly become disillusioned with the challenges of marital throes. She takes up a janitors job that requires her to work nights, sleeping during the day. She starts growing increasingly sensitive toward sound and unable to keep food down. Thus beginning her transformation which most viewers will miss noticing till they reach the end, those brave souls that do that is. At no point in the movie does the storytelling get any better. The first ten minutes is all that's required to know the pace of the movie which is excruciatingly slow. Even documentaries have more thrill in them than this.

Where to begin with this movie? Well first a heads up; the trailer gives away nothing about where this movie ends up going. I'm not going to spoil it here although in all honesty it's not particularly interesting.

The movie opens promisingly by introducing our main characters Uma and Gopal, an unhappily (recently) married couple living in Mumbai. Uma has been uprooted from her home and moved to a place she doesn't understand.

The first 45 minutes or so are her trying and failing to get to grips with her new life with her unsatisfactory husband. The first 15 minutes are fine with nice world building, artistic cinematography somewhat reminiscent of Wes Anderson. There are some comedic elements within quite a dialogue sparse set of scenes that are essentially a series of vignettes. But then this just goes on... and on... and on. By 45 minutes in this plodding plot becomes stale and boring.

Then there is the "twist". Uma comes down with an odd sickness. It's not really apparent that this is a plot point until it is repeated multiple times and the audience eventually get the idea of what is happening by brute force.

Then things just get bizarre. I won't say any more to avoid spoiling what little novelty the film has. But it's just all so weird... and this means it's a real struggle to figure out what the movie is supposed to be about.

Such slim pickings of themes and a barren plot will be fertile ground for some (i.e critics) to come up with a plethora of interpretations that somehow rescue the movie from the yawnfest I felt it was. There has to be some reason critical reception for this movie is good right?

Unless the movie is supposed to be a modern retelling of some Indian folklore story I am ignorant of, I am really struggling to understand what it is supposed to be about. This would be less of a problem if the rest of the film has good pacing, funny dialogue or some thrills but it has none of these. It would be a difficult watch even if it was a 20 minute short, let alone a 110 minute feature.

3/10.

Greetings again from the darkness. London-based Indian artist Karan Kandhari chooses a misfit couple's arranged marriage as the basis for his debut feature film. As writer and director, Kahdhari delivers a psychological comedy that goes a bit dark at times, yet the abundance of creativity and a terrific lead performance keep us anxious to see what happens next.

Uma (Radhika Apte) and Gopat (Ashok Pathak) are obvious misfits as spouses as evidenced by their first night as husband and wife. Uma is eager to consummate the marriage, but Gopat either has no interest or is so intimidated by his assertive and forward-acting bride that he prefers to ignore her - other than asking her, "Why can't you just be normal?" With no sexual activity, and the inability to cook or clean, Uma becomes bored and frustrated, resulting in her proclaiming sarcastically, "I'm a domestic Goddess". This leads her to take 'wife' lessons from her neighbor Sheetal (Chhaya Kadam). It's here where we learn that husbands will eat any dinner if enough chili and salt is added, and more insightfully, "men are dim."

Ms. Apte brings a physicality (as well as deadpan mastery) to her terrific performance and her wide eyes convey much of her thoughts, especially as her transformation takes place. She admits, "This is just how God painted my face", yet as time rolls on, she's clearly not well physically or emotionally. This causes Gopat to step up, while also allowing filmmaker Kandhari to infuse some stop-motion animation as the level of bizarreness jumps. Cinematography from Sverre Sordal and film editing by Napoleon Stratogiannakis perfectly enhance the oddity, as does the choice of music ... including songs by The Stooges, Buddy Holly, Marty Robbins, Howlin' Wolf, and even The Band's "The Weight".

Between the stifling heat and the less-than-elegant accommodations, it's doubtful Mumbai's Tourism Bureau appreciates the setting, but for movie lovers, there is significant entertainment value with this one as it exposes the misery of being trapped. Just be careful with that cookie tin.

Opens in NYC May 16, LA May 23, nationwide May 30.

Midnight Sister is one of those films that tries so hard to be deep and artistic, it ends up being neither. The plot is incoherent, the characters are paper-thin, and the dialogues sound like they were written during a caffeine-fueled poetry slam. It constantly throws abstract visuals at you without substance, hoping you'll mistake confusion for brilliance. This isn't thought-provoking cinema-it's cinematic noise. My sincere request to the creators: stop corrupting people's brains. We need meaningful storytelling, not pretentious chaos. We deserve stories that stimulate, not sedate.

Apte needs a 'JHAAPTE'