Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Sept 14, 2014 8:16:12 GMT -6
variety.com/2014/film/reviews/toronto-film-review-the-keeping-room-1201302809/
A potentially gripping story is undermined by studied, self-conscious storytelling in Daniel Barber's Civil War drama.
Joe Leydon
@joeleydon
A potentially gripping story of empowerment through armed resistance is almost totally undermined by studied, self-conscious storytelling in “The Keeping Room,” a handsomely mounted but frustratingly mannered period drama that, in addition to its many other problems, ends just when things appear to be getting really interesting. Working from Julia Hart’s 2012 Black List screenplay about three Southern women — two sisters and their loyal but not entirely subservient slave — who must defend themselves against two brutish Union Army scouts during the waning days of the Civil War, director Daniel Barber (“Harry Brown”) devotes entirely too much time to a languidly paced buildup that is heavy on portentous atmospherics, mumbled dialogue and aggressively striking visuals. The violent payoff arrives much too late to provide satisfying catharsis, or to enhance the film’s commercial appeal.
Barber employed a similarly elliptical approach to narrative in “The Tonto Woman,” his 2008 Oscar-nominated short — based on an Elmore Leonard short story — about a Mexican horse thief drawn to a white woman who, after being freed from captivity by Indians, has been ostracized from polite society. Alas, what might be attention-grabbing and mood-sustaining in a 35-minute short can come off as intolerably tedious in a 95-minute feature.
Things do start off with a bang – literally – as rogue Yankees Moses (Sam Worthington) and Henry (Kyle Soller) dispose of two captives and an unfortunate witness while cutting a bloody swath through rural South Carolina in advance of Gen. William Sherman’s oncoming Union forces.
But then the scene shifts to a family farm where the womenfolk have been left to fend for themselves while the men are off fighting for the Confederacy. Augusta (Brit Marling) has steeled herself to the day-to-day grind of tilling the fields and maintaining the homestead, relying the help of Mad (Muna Otaru), a dutiful slave she has begun to accept as a near-equal. Louise (Hailee Steinfeld), Augusta’s teenage sister, sounds and behaves like a spoiled brat as she complains about the grueling workload, and bluntly expresses disdain for having to work alongside “a n—er.” Augusta stoically responds: “Like I told you, Louise — we’re all n—ers now.”
When Louise is bitten by a raccoon while recklessly wandering through the woods, it’s up to Augusta to seek medicine from the few folks remaining in what’s left of a nearby town. Unfortunately, the two Yankees already have arrived there. Even more unfortunately, Moses immediately takes a shine to the feisty Southern woman. That she keeps him at bay with a rifle only intensifies his desire.
One thing leads to another — very slowly — until, eventually, Moses and Henry show up at Augusta’s farm with rape and pillaging on their mind. To Barber’s credit, that’s when he starts to ratchet up the suspense in earnest, amping the mounting dread in a manner that suggests a better-than-average horror movie — or the slow-burn builds to violence in Barber’s debut feature, “Harry Brown.”
Trouble is, during the downtime between eruptions of violence, characters are given to speaking dialogue that all too obviously sounds like it was written by someone else a long time ago, not uttered extemporaneously on the spot. There is an especially jarring faux-poetic moment when the uneducated Mad waxes eloquent about the malevolent male “demons” who trouble women. It speaks volumes about Muna Ortaru’s persuasiveness as an actor that Mad’s words are improbably affecting, if not entirely convincing.
Marling ably conveys the right measures of terror and determination, willed strength and weary resignation, and hits the right notes with Worthington to indicate the gradual establishment of grudging respect, or something like it, between their characters. Steinfeld and Soller are at their best during a genuinely creepy standoff that ends violently.
Production values are generally fine, though the final scene relies on special effects that, truth to tell, aren’t very special. As noted above: That finale is something of a tease, suggesting that the surviving characters are about to experience adventures far more exciting than anything that has occurred up to that point. It’s highly doubtful, however, that a sequel will be in the cards.
Toronto Film Review: 'The Keeping Room'
Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentations), Sept. 8, 2014. Running time: 95 MIN.
Production
A Wind Dancer Films presentation and production in association with Gilbert Films and Anonymous Content Production. (International sales: Sierra/Affinity, WME.) Produced by Jordan Horowitz, Judd Payne, Matt Williams, David McFadzean, Dete Meserve, Patrick Newall. Executive producers, Gary Gilbert, Michael Sugar.
Crew
Directed by Daniel Barber. Screenplay, Julia Hart. Camera (color), Martin Ruhe; editor, Alex Rodriguez; music, Mearl; production designer, Caroline Hanania; costume designer, Luminita Lungu; sound, Stanomir Dragos; assistant director, Christopher Landry.
With
Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, Muna Otaru, Sam Worthington, Kyle Soller, Nicholas Pinnock, Ned Dennehy, Amy Nuttall.
A potentially gripping story is undermined by studied, self-conscious storytelling in Daniel Barber's Civil War drama.
Joe Leydon
@joeleydon
A potentially gripping story of empowerment through armed resistance is almost totally undermined by studied, self-conscious storytelling in “The Keeping Room,” a handsomely mounted but frustratingly mannered period drama that, in addition to its many other problems, ends just when things appear to be getting really interesting. Working from Julia Hart’s 2012 Black List screenplay about three Southern women — two sisters and their loyal but not entirely subservient slave — who must defend themselves against two brutish Union Army scouts during the waning days of the Civil War, director Daniel Barber (“Harry Brown”) devotes entirely too much time to a languidly paced buildup that is heavy on portentous atmospherics, mumbled dialogue and aggressively striking visuals. The violent payoff arrives much too late to provide satisfying catharsis, or to enhance the film’s commercial appeal.
Barber employed a similarly elliptical approach to narrative in “The Tonto Woman,” his 2008 Oscar-nominated short — based on an Elmore Leonard short story — about a Mexican horse thief drawn to a white woman who, after being freed from captivity by Indians, has been ostracized from polite society. Alas, what might be attention-grabbing and mood-sustaining in a 35-minute short can come off as intolerably tedious in a 95-minute feature.
Things do start off with a bang – literally – as rogue Yankees Moses (Sam Worthington) and Henry (Kyle Soller) dispose of two captives and an unfortunate witness while cutting a bloody swath through rural South Carolina in advance of Gen. William Sherman’s oncoming Union forces.
But then the scene shifts to a family farm where the womenfolk have been left to fend for themselves while the men are off fighting for the Confederacy. Augusta (Brit Marling) has steeled herself to the day-to-day grind of tilling the fields and maintaining the homestead, relying the help of Mad (Muna Otaru), a dutiful slave she has begun to accept as a near-equal. Louise (Hailee Steinfeld), Augusta’s teenage sister, sounds and behaves like a spoiled brat as she complains about the grueling workload, and bluntly expresses disdain for having to work alongside “a n—er.” Augusta stoically responds: “Like I told you, Louise — we’re all n—ers now.”
When Louise is bitten by a raccoon while recklessly wandering through the woods, it’s up to Augusta to seek medicine from the few folks remaining in what’s left of a nearby town. Unfortunately, the two Yankees already have arrived there. Even more unfortunately, Moses immediately takes a shine to the feisty Southern woman. That she keeps him at bay with a rifle only intensifies his desire.
One thing leads to another — very slowly — until, eventually, Moses and Henry show up at Augusta’s farm with rape and pillaging on their mind. To Barber’s credit, that’s when he starts to ratchet up the suspense in earnest, amping the mounting dread in a manner that suggests a better-than-average horror movie — or the slow-burn builds to violence in Barber’s debut feature, “Harry Brown.”
Trouble is, during the downtime between eruptions of violence, characters are given to speaking dialogue that all too obviously sounds like it was written by someone else a long time ago, not uttered extemporaneously on the spot. There is an especially jarring faux-poetic moment when the uneducated Mad waxes eloquent about the malevolent male “demons” who trouble women. It speaks volumes about Muna Ortaru’s persuasiveness as an actor that Mad’s words are improbably affecting, if not entirely convincing.
Marling ably conveys the right measures of terror and determination, willed strength and weary resignation, and hits the right notes with Worthington to indicate the gradual establishment of grudging respect, or something like it, between their characters. Steinfeld and Soller are at their best during a genuinely creepy standoff that ends violently.
Production values are generally fine, though the final scene relies on special effects that, truth to tell, aren’t very special. As noted above: That finale is something of a tease, suggesting that the surviving characters are about to experience adventures far more exciting than anything that has occurred up to that point. It’s highly doubtful, however, that a sequel will be in the cards.
Toronto Film Review: 'The Keeping Room'
Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentations), Sept. 8, 2014. Running time: 95 MIN.
Production
A Wind Dancer Films presentation and production in association with Gilbert Films and Anonymous Content Production. (International sales: Sierra/Affinity, WME.) Produced by Jordan Horowitz, Judd Payne, Matt Williams, David McFadzean, Dete Meserve, Patrick Newall. Executive producers, Gary Gilbert, Michael Sugar.
Crew
Directed by Daniel Barber. Screenplay, Julia Hart. Camera (color), Martin Ruhe; editor, Alex Rodriguez; music, Mearl; production designer, Caroline Hanania; costume designer, Luminita Lungu; sound, Stanomir Dragos; assistant director, Christopher Landry.
With
Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, Muna Otaru, Sam Worthington, Kyle Soller, Nicholas Pinnock, Ned Dennehy, Amy Nuttall.