Friday, October 09, 2009

Vinyan (2008)

It's a pity that Fabrice du Weiz appears to have no story telling ability whatsovever, because the set-up here is quite promising and he can certainly come up with some arresting visuals.

Rufus Sewell and Emmanuelle Béart play a couple in Thailand, still grieving six months after their young son was apparently swept away by the tsunami.

After watching a video about displaced children trafficked into Burma, Béart's character Janet becomes convinced that little Joshua is alive out there in the heart of darkness, still wearing his red Manchester United shirt, and so the pair hire a shady underworld character to take them on a distinctly iffy quest to the badlands/ spirit world.

What starts off rather half-heartedly as a thriller, becomes a phantasmagoric mix of Apocalypse Now, Don't Look Now and Lord of the Flies. And if at any point you actually care what happens you are a considerably more empathetic person than I am.

Béart's performance is intense (a bit too instense for me) and all poor old Rufus has to do is to screw up his features in consternation (and trepidation) every time she's having one of her moments.

Grade: B (-)

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