[guest post] A Richard Armitage fan saw The Lodge on February 2 — her impressions! No spoilers.

I saw The Lodge on Saturday, and I thought it was one of the best films I’ve seen in a while. I have not read any reviews of it yet so these are my raw experiences and those of the people sitting around me. There is very little I can report without spoiling it, so these comments are pretty vague.

Richard (Richard’s character’s name) is an appealing character. He looks good — short beard, in a suit in one scene, but usually wearing casual winter clothes.

His acting is convincing, but mostly he is playing a pleasant, regular guy. There is one specific scene where the acting is challenging, and he pulls it off. He is a man who clearly loves his children and cares about his estranged wife and fiance. But he doesn’t always listen to any of them, and puts his own interests ahead of theirs. That aspect of his personality is needed to create the premise where he leaves his fiance alone in a mountain lodge with his two children.

Needless to say, the situation in the lodge deteriorates after Richard leaves. The tension builds from the opening credits to the closing credits. The visuals are pretty dark, the weather in the mountains is often dark and snowy, and the background music sounds like low-pitched moaning. The plot very slowly builds the tension as well. At times it is difficult to tell what is going on, and what is real versus dreaming. I admired it because it all comes together: high-quality writing, acting, and production.

Some things people might be worried about: there are a couple of violent scenes, but presented in a way that advances the plot without dwelling on it. It is not the kind of film that gives nightmares or has bad visuals that you can’t get out of your head. It is just very tense. There are religious references to a misguided form of Christianity that may possibly make some viewers uncomfortable, but I didn’t find it to be negative towards rational-thinking religious people.

There were four or five times when the audience laughed out loud, or just reacted in amused surprise. At one point, someone in the audience accidentally dropped something on the wood floor that made a loud noise and everyone laughed. I exhaled deeply during the closing credits because I could finally relax. However, the tension was gone an hour later.

My only criticism is that I found both the estranged wife and the fiance to be implausible partners for Richard. I couldn’t figure out what his character saw in either of them! I think I would have liked the wife better if I didn’t hate her taste in home furnishings, because her house and the lodge are the main clues to her personality. The fiance is sympathetic but hard to like, even at the beginning.

I think debuting this at Sundance was perfect, because the mountains and snow outside reinforced the mood of the movie. I am no movie expert, but I think this movie will attract attention.

[Guest post is written by csprof.]

~ by Servetus on February 4, 2019.