No matter how many strange twists and turns this film and it's highly improbably story threw at me, it never felt excessive. Which is something that should be understood before reading any of the plot details which only sound weirder and weirder as the film goes on.
Two men, Charlie and Vincente, met at a restaurant in Scotland and decide to ride together for a while. Charlie is on his way to burn down the house of his ex-wives new lover (a pop star who wrote a hit song about her, which is constantly on the radio, and is filling Charlie with vengeance), and Vicente a gigolo(allegedly) who slept with a powerful man's wife, and is now in jeopardy of having his testicles forcibly removed.
Bad luck leads them to a remote boarding house where they are forced to spend the night. At first glance the place has all the eerie awkward unpredictability of any of the strange inn's populating David Lynch and Takashi Miike films, yet as the film goes on it opens in very humanistic directions. The boarding house is actually a Retreat/Commune for a group of people with psychological problems, there's a Priest with a taste for boys, an nymphomaniac, an agoraphobic, a paranoid etc, where everyone is encouraged to be as open and forthcoming with their ailments as possible in an atmosphere of trust and security.
Meanwhile Charlie's car is being slowly taken apart to keep him from leaving and Vicente begins having visions of a blonde teenage girl who may be connected to a tragedy that occurred on the grounds many years ago, and he might not have lost track of those chasing him either.
This could all play out like a freak show, but it doesn't, there are some genuinely funny and uncomfortable moments, but the film's ensemble nature gives every character a real voice, and the commune/retreat setting an unpredictable air of both therapy and healing and as well as something darker just around the bend. "The Wicker Man" seems the films most obvious reference point, with their shared examination of alternative and Scottish cultures, psychology, and ritual. The ending is brutal as well as hopeful, and ties together all of the films there-before scatter brain ideas into a neat and emotionally compelling package.
The film plays with tones extremely well, leading you down a horror film hallway and giving you a comedic punch line, or a moment of startling poignancy. It's because of these shifts that the film is enjoyable to watch and difficult to predict.
The music is a mixed bag, on the one hand it's got a great pop song driven soundtrack by The Pastels(who perform in the films climatic gender-bender funeral party), and on the other, there is a really trite 80's synth score which fills in other moments. Nevertheless a funny, fascinating, creepy, well-written, and emotionally fulfilling independent film from Scotland. Not one I would have picked myself at first, but was pleasantly surprised.
Two men, Charlie and Vincente, met at a restaurant in Scotland and decide to ride together for a while. Charlie is on his way to burn down the house of his ex-wives new lover (a pop star who wrote a hit song about her, which is constantly on the radio, and is filling Charlie with vengeance), and Vicente a gigolo(allegedly) who slept with a powerful man's wife, and is now in jeopardy of having his testicles forcibly removed.
Bad luck leads them to a remote boarding house where they are forced to spend the night. At first glance the place has all the eerie awkward unpredictability of any of the strange inn's populating David Lynch and Takashi Miike films, yet as the film goes on it opens in very humanistic directions. The boarding house is actually a Retreat/Commune for a group of people with psychological problems, there's a Priest with a taste for boys, an nymphomaniac, an agoraphobic, a paranoid etc, where everyone is encouraged to be as open and forthcoming with their ailments as possible in an atmosphere of trust and security.
Meanwhile Charlie's car is being slowly taken apart to keep him from leaving and Vicente begins having visions of a blonde teenage girl who may be connected to a tragedy that occurred on the grounds many years ago, and he might not have lost track of those chasing him either.
This could all play out like a freak show, but it doesn't, there are some genuinely funny and uncomfortable moments, but the film's ensemble nature gives every character a real voice, and the commune/retreat setting an unpredictable air of both therapy and healing and as well as something darker just around the bend. "The Wicker Man" seems the films most obvious reference point, with their shared examination of alternative and Scottish cultures, psychology, and ritual. The ending is brutal as well as hopeful, and ties together all of the films there-before scatter brain ideas into a neat and emotionally compelling package.
The film plays with tones extremely well, leading you down a horror film hallway and giving you a comedic punch line, or a moment of startling poignancy. It's because of these shifts that the film is enjoyable to watch and difficult to predict.
The music is a mixed bag, on the one hand it's got a great pop song driven soundtrack by The Pastels(who perform in the films climatic gender-bender funeral party), and on the other, there is a really trite 80's synth score which fills in other moments. Nevertheless a funny, fascinating, creepy, well-written, and emotionally fulfilling independent film from Scotland. Not one I would have picked myself at first, but was pleasantly surprised.