Gus Van Sant is easily one of the most frustrating
filmmakers in the history of the medium. Not necessarily because his work is
out-and-out frustrating, although it sometimes is, but rather because of the
wild inconsistency throughout his filmography. He has had some seriously
incredible ideas behind his films and has even given us some great works, but
good lord, has he also delivered some of the worst or otherwise weirdest films
I’ve come across. I don’t think any director who can make something as
soul-crushingly dull as Gerry can be trusted, and Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
is strange beyond definable terms and another sign that, when not fishing for
Oscars, the man is kind of insane. Yeah, needless to say, my scepticism is even
greater than usual on this one, and considering this has been regarded as his worst film… this is not going to end
well.
The plot: Arthur (Matthew McConaughey), a teacher from
America, has flown to Tokyo in order to end his life in the infamous Aokigahara
Forest, also known as the Suicide Forest. As he prepares to commit suicide, he
comes across Japanese businessman Takumi (Ken Watanabe) and while they connect
over their respective miseries, we learn just why Arthur decided to do all
this.
The acting here is honestly the best thing to be found here,
and even then it has its issues. McConaughey apparently has been completely
unable to give a bad performance since his career resurgence back with Killer
Joe and this is no exception as, more so through his looks than his words, he
absolutely nails the feelings of grief and despair. Watanabe, while a tad stereotypical
as Arthur’s local connection (his reason for suicide is tied into "honour", for
crying out loud) has decent chemistry with McConaughey and considering their
on-screen bonding is what ends up fuelling at least half of the film, he does
what needs to be done here. Naomi Watts as Arthur’s wife Joan is really damn
good in her role, even how inconsistent it can be, and she basically runs a
master class in self-righteous passive-aggression that, while thoroughly
unlikeable, at least feels like the actions of a human being with how it’s
pared back just enough to keep it from melodrama. Barely enough, but still.
While I may have my lingering gripes with Van Sant as a
storyteller, he has always had a consistent track record for visuals and this
is yet another striking example of that. It may not have filmed in the actual
Aokigahara Forest, but it certainly looks and feels like it with how incredibly eerie and deeply unsettling the
place looks. In fact, I’m not entirely sure why, but the place is actually
creepier during the daytime than at night: Sure, it presents its own challenges
when the sun goes down, but the way the ‘strange fruit’ on the trees and the
desolate atmosphere of the setting is shown through natural light makes it that
much eerier. As for the shots of Arthur and Joan’s home life, while looking
appropriately lived-in, they end up serving as a nice and intentionally
double-edged effect in how it contrasts with what goes on inside that house.
The drama is at once made true and made false as the film
goes on, and oddly enough for the exact same reason: The characters. Arthur
gets a real emotional workout with everything that we see happen to him, both
past and present, but the fact that Joan is introduced in as vile a way as she
is, before just suddenly being on good terms with her husband, ends up robbing
the story of a lot of its weight. It doesn’t help that, with the order that the
events are presented to us in, the tension is pretty much gone since we know
full well what happens to her. In fact, that point ends up suffering because of
the weird ways it tries to throw us off which inspire more laughs than gasps;
no joke, this is the kind of progression that I’d expect to see in a cheesy
soap opera, not a deadpan-serious drama involving suicide.
This is furthered by how the film doesn’t seem to know what
to do with its main concept. It’s like Van Sant and writer Chris Sparling just
had a main idea about setting a film in the notorious Suicide Forest but didn’t
know how to fill it out from there. As such, it keeps jumping in tone and
source of drama in a way that isn’t natural in the slightest. In fact, I can
only really define it as manipulative because it feels like these scenes exist
for no other reason than to make the audience feel melancholy. No real thread
connecting them in any substantial-enough way, just a want to connect with
the viewer by any means necessary. That lack of tonal continuity would probably
go to explain why Joan’s character is portrayed as sloppily as she is.
All in all, it has a decent concept with plenty of cinematic
possibilities but the filmmakers don’t seem to have any real idea on how to use
it. The acting is very good and there are a couple of moments that reach true
poignancy, but overall it’s just a clumsy and somewhat manipulative mess of a
feature.
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