Into the Forest

(I intentionally tried my best to avoid spoilers, but please let me know if I didn't) I would have lost a bet if someone told me Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood were in a flick that sucked, but here you go. Good performances for both, some great emotion, but the whole of the writing suffers from plausibility problems, almost like a freshman film student didn't have a mentor review her work before final submission. It affects really basic things that are glaring. Set aside the narrative on the human condition, etc. for a moment. That can be massaged by the writer to match her message as she sees fit (some of the messages are not all that great, but I'm a guy), but what is obviously lacking in the story is the amount of technical consult work that must be done to ensure any viewer that has a slight idea of how things work doesn't turn away from the film before the conclusion. Perhaps I'm not part of the target audience? Unclear. Is it ready for the 2am slot of the lifetime network? Sure, why not? Every other medium will probably leave the viewer wondering if this same story could have been told with a lot more attention to detail. I mostly can't stand remakes, but I would welcome another crack at this.

This film is not a survival thriller. It is a deep and profound symbological tale that can only be understood allergorically. Except that some of the ideas underlying the film are kind of obscure and confusing (on an allegorical level.) The best stories work by being universally understood on a subconscious level. So the film is really only partially successful as allegory.

This movie has some really convincing performances. Ellen Page is great, the depth of her emotions are intense and believable. Evan Rachel Wood is also really good, she does her sensitive character a lot of justice and portrays a vividly brutal scene with real honesty. This movie is unsettling because it is all too possible. What happens when we are suddenly left without power is shocking - we are plunged into a lawless past, with no protection. This movie really conveys that well, and at the same time explores the theme of what it means to be a family. I was moved to tears several times. The forest setting is lush and beautiful. The direction was good - the pace was tense and believable, the only slow part I didn't care for were some of the love scenes in the beginning, and the dance scenes were pretty dispensable, but all in all I really liked it!

Without getting into all of the other hot topics that this film engenders, as an Alaskan I can say that from a purely survival aspect they wouldn't make it a winter. And in fact if this was supposed to be anywhere in Canada where was winter? It always seemed green. There are few berries in winter. Unless they lived in a fairly substantial house they would freeze to death. And there is very little food apart from hunting in the winter. And they certainly did not learn enough to survive simply from books. They would run out of ammo soon. They showed no skill at creating tools or salvaging them. And certainly none at basic house repair. In fact I would say they were just about the unhandiest women I've seen in the woods. Essentially this was just an emotionally acted fantasy without much basis in the real world. Kind of a shame. I had hoped for more.

This realistic end-of-the-world story unfolds as it likely really would. Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood play sisters living with their widowed father in the forest when an unexplained power outage occurs that leads to a breakdown in civil order. There are rumors as to what happened or how widespread it is, but it's never fully explained and that is not the focus of the film. The story instead focuses on Page and Woods' characters and how they face the many challenges of living in this new world, which includes grocery store clerks now carrying shotguns, rationing gasoline, and an increasing wariness of people who used to be friends and neighbors (or even relatives). I don't want to spoil any plot points, but what unfolds is what would likely really happen. You'd have to contend with a world without lights, internet, or music. You'd no longer know what's happening outside your village. You'd have to get used to the idea that the world is forever changed and is not going back to how things were before. In many ways, this film felt like the 1983 film "The Testament," which depicted a typical family after a nuclear warhead fell on the United States. Completely unsensational but the ordinariness of the characters and situations make the film far more identifiable of an experience when compared to "Mad Max" or "A Boy and His Dog," and consequently more impactful. However, on the downside, the ordinariness of the film also leads to some slow pacing and not always compelling of situations. Still, within the context of this film, it does work and is what makes this end-of-the-world story unique and all the more engaging. FUN FACT! The pig butchering scene was real. Ellen Page learned the process specifically to include in this film.