Vanishing Waves

A sci-fi film from Lithuania that was fascinating in itself for me, who had never seen a film from Lithuanian cinema before. The film is a combination of the director's influences from Tarkovsky, Lynch and Kubrick.

Creating a parallel world and communicating with someone who is in a coma is not a new topic, but in this film the focus is on the physical aspects and the body is especially important in this film. The weakness of the script and the problem of the story are quite evident and watching the movie until the end was boring and predictable for me. Weakness in the characterization of Lucas's character can also be seen.

Lukas is a young scientist who partakes in an experiment whereby his brain waves are connected to those of a comatose female patient. The goal is to ascertain if data can be transferred from one brain to another. Of course, Lukas cannot know anything about the patient, because that could influence the outcome. Lukas enters the isolation tank, and sinks deeper and deeper into his own subconscious. At some point he enters the subconscious of the patient, who turns out to be named Aurora. They fall for each other and make love multiple times during Lukas's visits.

Lukas chooses not to say anything to the researchers, because he is violating protocol (he's only there to observe, not to make contact) and that would consequently endanger his future visits to Aurora. His affair with the comatose woman not only endangers the experiment, but also his private life, as his obsession with Aurora grows.

Vanishing Waves is one of those sci-fi movies that take place in the landscape of the subconscious, just like Dreamscape, The Cell and Inception. Director Krystina Buozyte makes that landscape quite beautiful and convincing, with lyrical photography, striking locations and surreal visual effects. Technically this film is quite good.

But I have a big problem with the main character Lukas, who is not someone to root for. Once he has met Aurora, no one in the real world can match up to her. So he abuses his girlfriend and sexually attacks a prostitute. Is that really necessary for Buozyte to make the point that an immature man might become obsessed with what is in essence a dream woman? Maybe, but the result is a protagonist who the viewer cannot identify with and whose predicament leaves you cold. A film with way too little plot to fill a runtime of two hours should not keep its viewers at a distance like this.

Also problematic are the supporting actors, more specific: everyone in the laboratory. They all speak English, but so poorly it sounds like they are reading their lines phonetically.

I've seen today this VANISHING WAVES from the promising Lithuanian director Kristina Buozyte at "Fantasporto" (film festival from Oporto, my hometown) and I was amazed with it! I already knew it had won some important prizes, including one Melies D'Or, as the best European fantastic feature film, but even so I wasn't expecting such remarkable movie.

It combines many genres and sub-genres of cinema (from sci-fi to mystery thriller, romance to surrealism, among others) but it ends being a unique experience with an excellent directing work. At parts it made me remind some surrealistic movies of the 70's and their weird and abstract cinematography! I don't know if it was intended or not but I think it resembles to them in so many scenes!

The plot is not so ambiguous and twisted like those 70's surreal movies but at parts it's also a bit unclear and puzzling. However, at the end I think the message is quite clear and strong! But in a film like this the plot is what matters the less anyway. The beauty of this movie is in its colors, its intensity, the weird scenarios and the surreal ambiences! The camera work is also excellent showing some twisted angles and some little details that provide an amazing visual effect.

I was perfectly astonished with this film and from now on I'm expecting a lot from this director, Kristina Buozyte (which besides a good director seems to be a sympathetic person; she was also there at Fantasporto, presenting the movie!:)

Some scientists start working on an experiment to see if they can transfer some, any brain activity from a comatose patient, to a healthy subject. Lukas is the recipient, some scientist who's married. The experiment works. While under, he rescues a girl from the water and saves her life. In additional sessions, they establish a passionate relationship. Lukas looks forward to the sessions. It puts a strain on his relationship. More importantly, he isn't at all forthcoming about what he experiences. He just tells the team that he senses a presence. Things start getting weird and eventually go downhill for the relationship. Another man shows up in in this other-world. He represents a threat to Lukas and the girl. Eventually Lukas confronts him but that will also prove the undoing of his relationship with the girl. At some point he actually visits the comatose girl in real life and learns that she and a man were involved in a car accident but the man didn't make it. When the researchers decide to put an end to the experiment because for a moment, Lukas died during a session and had to revive him, Lukas comes clean about what has happened. And he demands one last session. He thinks he can save/cure the girl.

Vanishing Waves is interesting, stylish, and erotic. But it's long, slow, and tedious. It's one of those movies where very little is said, where characters establish romantic relationships without talking to each other. Instead we get lots of annoying high-pitched sounds. The movie is directed with confidence and style but given that most scenes last about 4 times as long as they should, the style ends up getting in the way of the movie. Acting is brutally stiff, I don't know if it has to do with the language--Lithaunian--maybe it's a cold and stiff language and hence the people are too. I started forwarding during a couple of scenes that wouldn't end. There's a ridiculous scene of the guy running naked after the girl but has a hard time catching her. The scene lasts maybe 10 minutes. At some point with the appearance of the other man, I started getting interested in the story and the turns which it might take, but didn't. The concept is good, not original, but surely something more could have been done here. But I enjoyed the ending. I give the movie 4 stars for Jurga Jutaite's stunning body and one more star for the concept and style. This movie could have been much stronger had the director shown a bit more moderation and had they written some more dialogue.

When I saw the trailer for this film I thought it looked amazing. I thought to myself this looks great, because I really love artistic films, yet when I finished the film I felt disappointed. It wasn't what I thought it was. I thought the dream sequences would be more like Inception and found that it's nothing like Inception at all but completely different.

This film is one what will stay with you after you watch it, and it's simply amazing once it clicks. I don't think most people today can understand films like this particularly western audiences. I absolute hate western audiences which is odd because I'm from here but people over here have no thinking skills when it comes to films like this. The story was breathtaking to me it goes in depth and visualizes what happens when our brains shut down. Where do we go? What kind of people are we when we leave our heads? What goes with us? What can we do?

This movie represents all that and some. The dinner scene was just, one of the best scenes that I've seen in a film in a while. It was so simple yet it was so great, it felt so chaotic. No rules bound to us and what becomes of us?

The visuals were actually really good even thought they weren't special effects, the way they are filmed is hypnotic in a way. The sexual scenes however aren't really meant to be pornographic as most people here would take them. They are meant to be sexual, human nature, what binds us together when we want to feel love, and what can swallow us never letting up it's grip one bit. The best thing about this movie however is that it can mean just about anything, I pondered on an explanation to the film for a few days and realized that it's one of those films that means something different to everyone, but with 2 basic concepts what is it like to be a free soul and can we find love within ourselves?

Fantastic film. Awesome acting. And superb story and visuals. Kudos to Kristina.