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Ack!...

Posted by Harmonia (A) on June 3, 2008 at 01:49:02

In Reply to: In my Father´s Den---- posted by patrickU on June 2, 2008 at 04:36:40:

Are you sure we watched the same movie?

Dear me, Patrick, I confess I was the one who recommended this film.

Obviously I must respectfully disagree with your assessment (and about DAAF too).

Based on a celebrated (if now somewhat dated) Kiwi novel of the same name, IMFD showed at a local film fest about 3 years ago - I was knocked out by the performances of Matthew Macfadyen as the emotionally damaged Paul and Emily Barclay as the open and direct Celia, the young girl with whom he strikes a friendship.

The film is about secret places, the most secret of all being within the human heart. IMFD won the critics' prize at Toronto FF and several other awards. Director Brad McGann died of cancer only a few months after his film made the festival rounds so this is his first and only movie, made on a shoestring.

IMFD is one of the more interesting Kiwi movies of late, reminiscent of other films from down under such as Sommersault and especially Lantana, with which it shares a similar structure. I wouldn't rate it as highly as Kiwi gems Once Were Warriors, An Angel At My Table or Heavenly Creatures - McGann's script sometimes allows the book's symbolism to overwhelm the delicate balance between thriller plot and emotional temperature taking. However, I can easily forgive IMFD its flaws (which I won't go into detail about for fear of spoilers) for its virtues, chief of which is the fine ensemble acting and its escalating intensity as the protagonists' forbidden pasts intertwine with their blasted futures.

IMFD is visually striking lending the landscape a specifity of place - cinematography is from the DP of The Piano. The natural beauty of the surroundings is in sharp contrast to the twisted emotions of its inhabitants. IMFD perfectly catches the flat, self-congratulatory insularity of a provinsial backwater. The ecclectic score is rather lovely too, culled from LPs from the titular den - Patti Smith's "Horses" features prominenetly.

Suffice to say, IMFD's layered darkness won't be for everyone. The "answers first, questions later structure" demands you pay attention. While this happens to be a structure I'm particularly smitten with - I love twiets and surprised - it will not be your cuppa. But the movie will amply reward those with the patience to get past the first reel. Recommended to those who like their mysteries layed like an onion - anyone who enjoyed Lantana might well give IMFD a look.

Here is a pretty good take on its many virtues and possible flaws - I don't quite agree with the critic's take on the film's final section but it's a fair assessment:

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