Emotional Paralysis

by Nathaniel Rogers
of The Film Experience

I have dabbled in painting, drawing, and writing my entire life, and sometimes the words, ideas, or images will not come. I recently became stuck again as a critic looking at The Others. Writing about a narrative art form can be difficult when you can't explore the narrative. How, for example, do you write about a film whose true merits are only abundantly evident when its secrets are unlocked? I would never dream of spoiling them for you.

The only thing that "unblocked" me, as it were, in regard to The Others, was making the connection between my creative block and the emotional paralysis on display in the film. It also got me to thinking about the best film I've seen dealing with emotional fear and inaction in recent years, In the Mood for Love. One of the few joys of being a film critic without a large forum or a paycheck is that if you're blocked, you're blocked. You wait until the dam breaks and inspiration trickles in.

The new ghost story The Others begins with a close up of Nicole Kidman screaming her lungs out. It's a strange but eventually rich way to begin a film that immediately gets quiet. The Others tells the story of Grace, an uptight and unhinged mother of two whose husband disappeared during World War II. Her children (Alakina Mann and James Bentley, terrific child actors both) are suffering from a mysterious allergy and can't tolerate sunlight. Grace can't tolerate noise. It gives her intense headaches. Everyone in the house, including three suspicious new servants, is trapped by individual ailments and by the blinding omnipresent fog surrounding the manor. It's very quiet and very dark, and that much more unnerving for the length of the film.

The set-up for these perfectly cinematic conceits consists of some of the most assured expositional filmmaking I've seen in a long time. Ten minutes in and the solid groundwork for a clever haunted house thriller is out of the way. While the narrative deals with clichés like suspicious servants, and standard ghost story elements like strange noises, and the mystery identities of the spectral visitors, the director is trying for something else entirely. One of the elevating strengths of the film is that Alejandro Amenábar (Thesis, Open Your Eyes) is telling more than a ghost story. The talented Spanish director is methodically building a character study. While you're caught up in the scares and goosebumps of the spare but effective narrative, Amenábar and Nicole Kidman are hard at work bringing a complex woman to life.

2001 is really turning into a banner year for Kidman. Though the Aussie actress has long been accused of celebrity by default, as an actress she seems to improve annually. While she was strong in a few early Australian films, she only really came to life (Hollywood-wise) under the hand of Gus Van Sant in the dark comedy To Die For. Her most formidable asset as an actress seems to be her determination to serve the film above all else. Rarely has an actress of her beauty and status gone so completely auteurist in her approach to choosing projects. In the past three years she's eagerly dived into the worlds of Kubrick, Luhrmann, Amenábar, and signed up for the new von Trier. She's fearless. Yet, fortunately for the audience of The Others, she paints a vivid portrait of fear.

Grace's psychological rigidity is thrilling to watch, and it's cleverly locked into the narrative structure of the story as well: Everything that happens, or that you fear might happen, is dictated or shaped by her rigid responses to the unknowable. Her house may be haunted but, as a stubbornly religious woman, she refuses to acknowledge a reality outside of the standard Biblical heaven and hell. She's angry with her husband for leaving for war but unable to think past "goodies and baddies" when questioned about the war he didn't have to join in on. Her children, as the servants suggest, may be recovering from their ailment, but Grace still won't allow the sunlight to reach them.

As the summer began Nicole Kidman raised her game as a movie star with Moulin Rouge and in a neat fit of synchronicity at summer's end, she raises her game as an actress in The Others. As for the film's surprises, they are multiple. The film's denouement will be much discussed by its audience. All I will say here is that it really works. It deepens the film and rewards one's afterthought in far more subtle ways than other films with gimmick endings.

In the Mood for Love, an even more extraordinary film dealing with rigid behavioral codes and emotional paradigm busting, is now available on video. I normally don't review films that have passed their theatrical runs, but I have to make an exception here. I first saw In the Mood for Love a few months back - long before the actual DVD release date. I don't know quite how it fell into my hands, but after watching it I cursed my indecisive nature that had prevented me from seeing it in the theater. I had heard marvelous things about it but just kept holding out. I didn't much like the director's previous film, Happy Together, so that's my main excuse. I screwed up. I missed this terrific film on the big screen, but don't make the same mistake now that it's on video. (I would, however, strongly suggest a DVD viewing, since the cinematography is awe inspiring.)

In the Mood for Love is not a plot movie so if you need traditional narrative you'll have to steer clear. But if you're at all open to art films, it's the best this year will offer. The narrative, as it is, is essentially the mapping out of the odd relationship that forms between two lonely married people, Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow, who fear that their spouses (who are never seen in the film) are involved with each other. What raises the film above an intelligent romance into profound art and drama is its remarkable insights into how memory selectively looks at and shapes our past and how imagination can shape our future, or at least chip away at emotional stasis and routine.

The rehearsal sequences, wherein Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow imagine their spouses' tryst and work through their own eventual parting, are heartbreaking. Both Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung are working at the top of their game in this film. Their chemistry is fascinating and this glorious work is mesmerizing.

If you're heading to the theater, consider the restrained and meticulous work of Amenábar and Kidman in The Others as definitely "recommended." If you're at the video store, consider Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love, starring the extraordinary coupling of Cheung and Leung, as "unmissable."

©2001 Nathaniel Rogers
CineScene