34°C
Partly cloudy
Fri
29°C
Sat
29°C
Sun
29°C

Powered by WeatherAPI.com

USD $1 ₱ 56.28 0.0000 March 27, 2024
March 26, 2024
Lotto 6/42
172330274012
₱ 9,522,382.20
2D Lotto 2PM
2819
₱ 4,000.00

‘Lost River’ is a Curious Misfire

This seems to have little to do with the actual quality of the film, however, which is uneven but hardly worthy of the jeering.

Lost River is the directorial debut of actor Ryan Gosling. It premiered at Cannes last year, and was largely met with derision. This seems to have little to do with the actual quality of the film, however, which is uneven but hardly worthy of the jeering. Gosling struggles to find his own distinct voice, lifting his style from a variety of great directors. At times, it verges on full on copying. But the film is bursting with ideas of its own. The director just hasn't found his own way of bringing them to fore.

Single mother Billy (Christina Hendricks) is struggling to make ends meet, and is on the verge of losing her home. She is made a strange offer by banker Dave (Ben Mendelsohn), who introduces her to an underground club where fantasies of violence against women are played out for an appreciative audience. As she falls deeper into this world, her son Bones (Iain De Caestecker) is trying to make some extra cash on the side by stripping abandoned homes for copper. But this activity puts him on the wrong side of mad thug Bully (Matt Smith), who is deeply protective of his territory. Mother and son fight for their lives in a bizarre world that seems indifferent to their plight.

There isn't much holding the two sides of this movie together. The shifts between scenes can be jarring, the ideas simply not pulling together into a coherent whole. But there are some strong ideas in here. Gosling appears to be weaving personal experience into a modern gothic fairy tale narrative, bringing a touch of magic to the mundane, and turning urban decay into the stuff of children's nightmares. There is a story in here about a world that seems set on bringing harm to women, and the courage it would take to change things.

But Gosling doesn't seem entirely prepared to bring these ideas to life. He borrows his style from other directors, the film emerging as the odd intersection between David Lynch and David Gordon Green. In some of its sequences, it recalls the horror imagery of Georges Franju. It doesn't quite work, Gosling failing to merge the two extremes into a singular visual style. And the reliance on other people's style makes the personal narrative feel abstract and distant. The mimicry obscures the voice of the director, the visuals overtaking the core emotions of the story.

Still, what emerges is still kind of interesting. The images may not be entirely original, but they are replicated with visible care. The cinematography brings an almost childlike wonder to what would otherwise just be scenes of squalor. The acting is pretty strong overall. Iain De Caestecker is naturally sympathetic, and here he brings a fierce determination entirely appropriate to the fairy tale feel. Christina Hendricks is always an arresting presence, and she draws attention here as well. Saoirse Ronan brings a steady hand to a crucial role as well, and Ben Mendelssohn exudes menace every chance he's given.

Advertisement

Lost River does feel like a bit of a misfire. It is so wrapped up in paying tribute to other directors that it forgets to develop a style of its own. But the result is still a somewhat worthy curiosity. There is some heart evident in it in spite of its reliance of other filmmakers’ styles to express it. It would be a stretch to call it good, but it is a compelling first effort. There is some promise here, or at least enough potential that it would be folly to write off Gosling the director.

My Rating:

Share the story

Advertisement
Advertisement

Recent Posts

Hot Off the Press