Sleepwalker first impressions [no spoilers] #richardarmitage

This is first impressions, no revelations about the plot; longer review will follow once I watch it several more times. Bullet points:

• The pace of this film is really meditative — it gets its tension from the inexorability of the way the plot moves forward, even if many elements are unexpected.
• It has a very effective score that enhances both the meditative quality and the tension.
• This is not the kind of movie I would normally choose to see, but although it has thriller / noir elements, it’s not a conventional thriller. It’s more of a meditation on the nature of reality or identity or perception.
• This fell right into the kinds of things I enjoy thinking about in art in general — how do people construct their reality? But it was not only thought-provoking, it was also beautiful in a low color-palette kind of way. But also tense. And often moving.
• The film does include some disturbing violence. It wasn’t shocking or gratuitous or pornographic like Pilgrimage but it is there. If you want to ask questions about the details, send me a message via the sidebar and I’ll give you a list. Mental health care professionals could potentially have strong issues with the film, depending on what they understand the plot to be about.
• The pace of the film, the score, the nature of the script, and the cinematography definitely all quality this film as more “arthouse indie” than mass market thriller. I’m not surprised that it wasn’t picked up by a larger distributor.
• Conceptually, the way the script / plot weaves in particular elements is deft and effective. It’s hard to explain this without discussing spoilers, but I found fascinating how elements from the very beginning of the film reappeared verbally and visually from time to time and then were drawn together at the end. Still, it’s not symbolically heavy-handed. I’m going to be thinking about this, particularly the key interpretive statements that appear about six minutes before the end, for quite a while.
• I really liked the script and I can see what would have attracted Armitage to it. At the same time, those who described it as convoluted are correct. I’m not sure that any two people who saw this film would necessarily agree about what was happening.
• The film often reminded me of Frozen, but it’s a better film than that. (There are visual and script similarities.)
• Ahna O’Reilly is the lead and she’s fantastic. (Chloe Grace Moretz wishes she could act mental health “issues” this effectively.)
• I didn’t realize who Haley Joe Osment was until the very end of the film.
• Richard Armitage is the male lead, but he doesn’t really get heavily drawn into the plot until about the first third of the film is over.
• I won’t weigh in on the topic of “good guy” or “bad guy,” but I will reiterate his own statement in interviews that Scott White is not what he seems to be. The film hints at this problem fairly aggressively both in glimpses and in terms of general tension / unease. In fact, no one is sure who they are in this film.
• At this point Armitage still has the Crucible body, and we get some nice views of him in both formal and casual clothes as well as a few glimpses of him partially clothed.
• There’s also a gorgeous, moving thumb shot. (Thank you, Mr. Lester!)
• What’s interesting about this performance (again trying to avoid the “good guy” / “bad guy” discussion) is how Armitage manages to balance the moments where his character gives rise to unease, and those where he’s the explicit consoler.
• The sex scenes in this film, while discreet and shot in low light, are definitely among the better ones in his oeuvre. There is a wall, but this is yet another way for an Armitage character to script sex, one that is somewhat unfamiliar. I was both moved and aroused and that combination doesn’t often happen for me in his explicit scenes — it’s usually one or the other.
• My general feeling after seeing the film is: unsettled.

Summary: great performances from O’Reilly and Armitage; meditative pacing; complicated and at times disturbing plot.

~ by Servetus on October 10, 2017.