Dark Water (2005)
Not scary or horrific, "Dark Water"
is more creepy and, well, dark, and more an homage
to Roman Polanski in the vein of post-millennium Asian
horror films than anything having to do with standard
Hollywood fare. This is seemingly odd territory for
director Walter Salles to tread and yet he does so
with the same amazing subdued energy and the same
subtle visual grace as he has shown in both "Central
Station" and "The Motorcycle Diaries." You have to
respect a director who takes on such diverse fare
and seems to easily make it his own.
It is impossible not to think of
Polanski here. Salles uses the same ariel shots of
the city that Polanski used to making "Rosemary's
Baby" seem so ethereal and distanced. And yet we are
pulled into the story by the same amazing claustrophobia
and internalization that the director used in "The
Apartment" and most of his other early films. Salles
isn't emulating here as much as seemingly paying homage
to the Polish director.
Like Rosemary, Jennifer Connelly's
Dahlia is a fragile, innocent and confused young woman
clinging desperately to any thread of hope she can
get her hands on. We struggle to understand her and
wonder continuously how much of her apparent psychosis
is in her head and how much is, in fact, reality.
Salles and Connelly, working from a script by Rafael
Yglesias (based on an Asian film and its script),
do a wonderful job of keeping us in the dark. Sporadically,
Connelly makes us think she is slipping into echoes,
repeating her work in "The House of Sand and Fog"
but just as frequently, she provides something new
and unusual that we do not expect.
"Dark Water" isn't the best script
around. We've seen this sort of story before in "The
Ring," "The Eye" and a ton of other Asian horror films.
But Salles creates something much richer and compelling
than most directors would have. Uninterested in scaring
us, Salles provides a murky, water- logged and overcast
world where light as well as hope seems an impossibility,
The beautifully murky images on the screen in "Dark
Water" last much longer in our minds than the improbable
storyline does.
Notes:
Also with John C. Reilly, Tim Roth,
Camryn Manheim, Dougray Scott and Pete Postlethwaite.
Score by Angelo Badalamenti.
Filmed in New York and Canada. It
would be interesting to know more about Roosevelt
Island, where the apartment building seems to be.
Viewed in Austin in July 2005.
