Oof what a polished turd this movie was. And really the only thing that seemed polished about it is it's 50's setting which only lends a veneer proficiency.
In post-World War II America, a Romanian woman, Maja, living in the suburbs with her husband, kidnaps her neighbor and seeks vengeance for the heinous war crimes she believes he committed against her. She recounts a night during the war when she and her gypsy family were assaulted by a group of German soldiers, one of whom she believes is her captured neighbor, Thomas. Her husband, Lewis, is torn by his Maja's claims especially as the more he looks into Thomas's past the more innocent he appears.
So we have a female lead who holds a man captive for the remainder of the film for supposed wrongs he's done. So this is basically a post-WWII version of Hard Candy and many of the problems I had with that movie are present here as well. The biggest being that there is no significant power shift throughout the film. She has this man subdued at the 20 minute mark and he remains captured for the entire film. Why do movies keep thinking you can make feature-length film from a captors point of view? Aside from being without any real threat, it's only possible if you needlessly drag the movie out. This movie accomplishes that by constantly cutting from them holding this man hostage to them going about there daily lives. It's honestly laughable every time it shifts to them getting in bed, talking to neighbors, or doing household chores, as if they don't currently have a man tied up in their basement. Also like Hard Candy, we're treated to a scene where the female lead is having to hide her captive from prying eyes and I'm once again kind of hoping she'll get caught. A lot of that is because I'm never given much of a reason to believe Maja's assertion. Blindly kidnapping a man she claims to recognize from 15 years prior is crazy enough but Thomas keeps providing evidence that appears to clear him of these accusations. So why should I side with Maja?
I at one point I wondered whether this film was planning a subversion of expectations. I mean, here's this man who we have no reason to believe is guilty, that this woman is detaining claiming him to be the holder of all her ill-will. It started to remind me of Hitler's own assertion to his party that the Jewish people were to blame for their problems because they'd taken what was rightfully theirs. I thought that maybe in the film's final moments Maja would come to the horrible realization that she's become the very thing she feared and now she's continuing the cycle of hatred.
Instead the climax suffers from a bad case of "Because the Script Said So" Syndrome in a clumsy way to make movie's events look worthwhile but it REALLY doesn't work. This is further highlighted by the fact that the movie's climax happens in the same set up we were at 20 minutes into the running time. The movie's events should not have been dragged out this much and the writers clearly didn't know how to lengthen it. The dozens of times she prepares to kill him and then stops just had me screaming at the screen "Either kill him or let him go but stop dragging it out!"
I can't even recall much else filmmaking-wise. The horrible plotting is enough to overshadow any competent performances, camera work, or score. It's a dower, unpleasant trudge. A better title would have been The Film We Keep Secret. Seriously, bury it.
In post-World War II America, a Romanian woman, Maja, living in the suburbs with her husband, kidnaps her neighbor and seeks vengeance for the heinous war crimes she believes he committed against her. She recounts a night during the war when she and her gypsy family were assaulted by a group of German soldiers, one of whom she believes is her captured neighbor, Thomas. Her husband, Lewis, is torn by his Maja's claims especially as the more he looks into Thomas's past the more innocent he appears.
So we have a female lead who holds a man captive for the remainder of the film for supposed wrongs he's done. So this is basically a post-WWII version of Hard Candy and many of the problems I had with that movie are present here as well. The biggest being that there is no significant power shift throughout the film. She has this man subdued at the 20 minute mark and he remains captured for the entire film. Why do movies keep thinking you can make feature-length film from a captors point of view? Aside from being without any real threat, it's only possible if you needlessly drag the movie out. This movie accomplishes that by constantly cutting from them holding this man hostage to them going about there daily lives. It's honestly laughable every time it shifts to them getting in bed, talking to neighbors, or doing household chores, as if they don't currently have a man tied up in their basement. Also like Hard Candy, we're treated to a scene where the female lead is having to hide her captive from prying eyes and I'm once again kind of hoping she'll get caught. A lot of that is because I'm never given much of a reason to believe Maja's assertion. Blindly kidnapping a man she claims to recognize from 15 years prior is crazy enough but Thomas keeps providing evidence that appears to clear him of these accusations. So why should I side with Maja?
I at one point I wondered whether this film was planning a subversion of expectations. I mean, here's this man who we have no reason to believe is guilty, that this woman is detaining claiming him to be the holder of all her ill-will. It started to remind me of Hitler's own assertion to his party that the Jewish people were to blame for their problems because they'd taken what was rightfully theirs. I thought that maybe in the film's final moments Maja would come to the horrible realization that she's become the very thing she feared and now she's continuing the cycle of hatred.
Instead the climax suffers from a bad case of "Because the Script Said So" Syndrome in a clumsy way to make movie's events look worthwhile but it REALLY doesn't work. This is further highlighted by the fact that the movie's climax happens in the same set up we were at 20 minutes into the running time. The movie's events should not have been dragged out this much and the writers clearly didn't know how to lengthen it. The dozens of times she prepares to kill him and then stops just had me screaming at the screen "Either kill him or let him go but stop dragging it out!"
I can't even recall much else filmmaking-wise. The horrible plotting is enough to overshadow any competent performances, camera work, or score. It's a dower, unpleasant trudge. A better title would have been The Film We Keep Secret. Seriously, bury it.