 "Photo: AP")
This weekend, the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar was taken over by Fantastic Fest 2007. Throughout the week, the Daily Texan will give a rundown of the festival's best and worst films.
'The Ferryman'
This little-publicized New Zealand flick follows three couples who, as the audience soon finds out, are on a vacation from hell - literally. The plot comes from the mythological ferryman deemed Charon, who requires payment to cross the dead over the river Acheron.
In this 2007 version of the story, the writers spend no effort creating original names and use The Ferryman and The Greek as villains. John Rhys-Davies plays The Greek, a death-fearing coward who sails the seas with a must-have travel accessory called the Shifter Knife. This sweet weapon transforms the soul of the killer into the body of the victim, scoring him more victories over the ferryman.
For the hardcore horror junkie, "The Ferryman" will prove boring and laughable, but to the mainstream moviegoer, the plot and the writing are interesting enough to grab your attention and twist it around for an hour and a half.
-Jenny Baxter
The Backwoods Director Koldo Serra's "The Backwoods" is a survival film that explores the psychological and physical journey of four English residents forced to come to grips with the foreign terrain of the Spanish mountains.
Married but on the rocks couple Norman (played by Paddy Considine) and Lucy are first seen following their friend Paul (played by Gary Oldman) and his wife Isabel into the mountains for a stay at their remote vacation house. When they make a stop at a local bar, a group of residents regard them with disdain and possible contempt. The encounter is a tense situation for the four, but they overlook it and continue.
The next day, Paul and Norman embark on a hunting excursion and discover a small girl with deformed hands locked in the back room of an abandoned house. They bring her back to the cabin and decide to go get help.
Driving back through the woods to the village, a fallen tree causes a crash and forces the group to return to the cabin. When the villagers show up the next day looking for the girl, the group is forced to come up with a plan and contemplate the true nature of their relationships as they struggle to survive.
The thing that stands out the most about the film is the brilliant performance from Considine. Most of the leads in the movie are unfortunately similar: a low-key Brit with a confrontational personality. But Considine is a true pro, portraying Norman with haunting realism. We learn that Norman and Lucy recently lost a child, a possible clue to their relationship problems, and a brilliant explanation for Norman's simultaneous yearning for the re-establishment of the close relationship with his wife and his distant coldness.
The dialogue the movie incites about relationships functions magnificently. On the surface, it's all about surviving and getting out of harm's way, but there's an undercurrent exploring the conflict among damaged relationships and either the divide or the healing that takes place when the relationship is forced to go through conflict. Although the overarching concept of the movie is a thriller, it's also a drama.
Other than that though, the movie struggles. It's easy because of the synopsis to lump the movie in with the crop of Deliverance rip-offs, but it's really quite different. The plot is believable with no glaring holes, but the dialogue is inconsistently choppy and alternates from cliche-laden generalizations - Paul lets Norman in on the revelation that "There are hunters and prey. It's the only f***ing truth in this world" - to brilliantly rendered snippets of mundane but necessary exposition to intense dramatic moments. The soundtrack fails as well, striving for low-key but basically ending up as an exotic drum hit every 10 minutes. The similarity of the main characters also contributes to the lackluster quality of the film, but Considine's performance carries the film across the road bumps and helps to put it back on track. Couple that with a powerful closing scene and the film results in an inspired, albeit average, effort.
- Robert Rich
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