Vinyan

As Belgian compatriot, and a big fan of his more than promising debut feature (the genuinely eerie backwoods-oddity "Calvaire"), I pledged I would follow the work of writer/director Fabrice Du Welz regardless of what he would do next. I already broke that promise with his next film "Vinyan", though, and even now - more than 12 years since its release - I was still reluctant to see it. It all has to do with the plot, and the simple fact it doesn't seem like anything I want to see processed into a thriller/horror film. Released only a few years after the devastating tsunami in Asia, "Vinyan" revolves around a couple who lost their son in the wave and remind behind soulless and heartbroken. When, at a fundraising event, the mother think she sees footage of her missing son Joshua, she persuades her doubting husband to spend a fortune on heading deep into the Burmese jungle; -on a dangerous mission with unreliable guides and without any tangible evidence their son really is still alive.

I read comparisons between "Vinyan" and major milestones such as "Apocalypse Now" and "The Deer Hunter". Because of the jungle setting, obviously, but also because Du Welz' script essentially revolves about the physical and emotional exhaustion, obsession, and the irreversible descent into madness. It's an extremely unpleasant film, thriving on a thoroughly gloomy atmosphere and the intense performances of both Emmanuelle Béart and Rufus Sewell, and the screenplay never gives you the slightest hope of a happy ending. The title allegedly means "angry spirits", and in the third act of the film these spirits are personified in a sort of hellish version of "Lord of the Flies".

In spite of a powerful and authentically dramatic first hour, it honestly feels as if Du Welz lost control over his own script and film throughout the entire third act. "Vinyan" becomes dull, repetitive, and frustrating when it should be getting more tense and building up to its climax. By this time, the comparisons with "Apocalypse Now" have long become irrelevant, and only the incredibly devoted Béart still makes an effort to drag the film over the finish line with her stupendous performance.

An American couple in Thailand discover possible evidence that their young son who died in a tsunami six months earlier is still alive and living in the jungles of Myanmar (Burma). They pay some dubious characters a lot of money to go up river into the forbidden country. Things go from bad to worse.

Many viewers denounce "Vinyan" (2008) because it's not a typical horror film, but that's precisely why it's worthwhile. It's original. It's equal parts haunting, beautiful, strange and creepy. The plot is thin, yet the story maintains your attention.

The acting is excellent all around and you buy these people as real. The five main characters being: Paul and Jeane Bellmer (Rufus Sewell and Emmanuelle Béart), a human trafficker named Thaksin Gao, the captain of the small boat named Sonchaï and the couple's liaison, Kim (Julie Dreyfus).

Memorable parts abound, such as Kim's subtle-but-clear seduction of Paul, the beautiful floating-lanterns at the beach ceremony and the awesome tree fortress.

The meaning of the film is ambiguous, but it provokes thought on several things: The nature of grief (letting go or not letting go), obsession, madness, tribal instincts, going feral and more.

As for the tribe of lost kids in the last act, are they 'vinyan' -- angry, confused spirits who suffered horrible deaths -- or are they simply a pack of kids gone wild in the jungle à la "Lord of the Flies"? I say the evidence points to the latter.

In any case, "Vinyan" has elements of films like "Apocalypse Now," "The Emerald Forest," "Fitzcaraldo" (or "Aguirre") and the aforementioned "Lord of the Flies."

The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot in Thailand.

GRADE: B+

Before watching "Vinyan",I read some comments of IMDb users. Most of all said that the movie is a crap, that nobody should waste one hour and a half of your life watching it. Well, I guess that I saw some other movie.

First of all, the comparisons with David Lynch's works are not fair. Vinyan takes a direction that Lynch never got on his works (an original approach to ghost stories). So, don't believe if you read that this movie is a bad copy of Lynch's works.

Fabrice du Welz shows again why he's a great director,a truly great horror director (how can some critics call Darren Lynn Bousman, Eli Roth an Rob Zombie the "horror directors of the new generation"?). The atmosphere of his craft is fabulous, he manages to make the tension and insanity grow slowly and steadily.

Another great achievement of Welz is documentary feel that he impressed with his direction. The locations of the movies are also great, big and mysterious jungles, like if they were abyss that you just enter, but never leaves them.

Emanuelle Béart,with his explosive beauty, and Rufus Sewell give great performances. The process of disintegration of their marriage showed by them as they delve into the jungle is awesome.

Finally, this is the kind of movie that, before you try to comprehend it, you must feel it.

If you like it, watch "Calvaire", Welz's previous work, a real horror gem.

The great mistake in Vinyan is to have tried to sell it as a classical horror movie from Hollywood, like The Ruines or The Grudge.

Don't expect any cheap thrills or funny Fx, it's a deep drama about an occidental woman in Asia, falling into madness after the loss of her child, with a post-tsunami background.

I can understand why some people are so disappointed, the subject is disturbing and unusual : how can you accept the loss of your child without a clear evidence of his death, and how can you express your own pain in a devastated country where most people are going through intense sufferings, violence and poverty ?

Even if Vinyan is not perfect, i really liked the very dark atmosphere that stay with you long after the end of the film. I'm not a huge fan of Emmanuelle Béart but I think she is quite convincing in this role, far from her usual characters.

I was in the video store and saw this movie, read the synopsis on the back and thought it'd be pretty good. Nope.

It had such great potential and such a great idea in terms of story, but for some reason the script just never delivered, and the last 30 minutes leaves you wondering: "why after all they went through, did this sh*t happen?" The acting wasn't terrible, and the way it was filmed wasn't bad either, though with this story they could have made things a little bleaker.

If you do want to watch it, make sure you get something else to watch too because you'll be left feeling baffled, unfulfilled and wanting to watch something that wasn't a waste of an hour and a half.