Mark Reviews Movies: CHARIOT

Chariot, Saban Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 14, 2022

If you know where to look, the central mystery of Chariot isn't much of one. Writer/director Adam Sigal doesn't try to hide the truth of this story, providing chapter titles that more or less explain, in fairly succinct terms, exactly what's happening, even before it actually happens in this weird tale.

Ultimately, that move feels like an afterthought, as if the brief and explanatory notes were added in the editing process, or a forethought, as if Sigal didn't want to waste any time with a lengthy explanation somewhere in the middle or near the end of his story. Either way, we get a movie that makes its gimmick known but doesn't seem to know what to do with it.

It all begins with a prologue set in 1840, somewhere in the woods of the frontier. A man lives in a cabin there and, after doing his chores, coughs up blood. Somewhere in the distance, there's a building that looks like an observatory with a tower of flashing lights atop it, and as the man lies on his deathbed, a figure wearing something like a plague mask stands over him.

The chapter here refers to a "Reincarnation Station," and that, along with a separate reference to "Lovers Reunited" in the next chapter, is the only solid evidence we receive about what's really going on in this story. It's all that need, apparently, to have a foundational comprehension of Sigal's goal, and the foundation is basically where the filmmaker ends with the premise.

As for the rest of the story, it takes place in a more modern setting and revolves around Harrison Hardy (Thomas Mann). He has come to an unnamed city to seek treatment from Dr. Karn (John Malkovich, sporting a ridiculously bright-red wig with an occasional bow in it), a specialist in dreams. Harrison has been having a recurring a dream (He has counted exactly how many times he has had it, and that number is almost at 5,000), which seems like a mundane memory from his childhood. The odd thing about it is that the childhood home in the dream has an attic, while the real house doesn't.

That's one mystery, which isn't revealed until the end (Save for some cryptic dialogue that kind of clarifies the stuff that the chapter titles have established, the payoff to that mystery is about as mundane as the dream itself). Another has to do with the apartment building where Harrison takes up residence while undergoing treatment with the doctor. This place serves as the central hub of the rest of Sigal's puzzling playground, which becomes so littered with odd characters, weird scenarios, and half-baked ideas that the whole arrangement becomes more of a distraction than a way of clarifying or expanding the main gimmick.

Here, Harrison meets Maria (Rosa Salazar), a struggling actress who's eager to become friends with the new guy in the building. She's quite interested in his dream, too, and really, Maria isn't a character—except in the context that she's eccentric—but a sounding board for Harrison, a means of vaguely describing or introducing him to some other residents, and a distressed motive to get him trying to uncover the mystery surrounding him in the third act.

Some of the other tenants include Lauren (Scout Taylor-Compton), an insecure woman whose body is occasionally possessed by a dirty older British man, and David (Vernon Davis), who makes himself at home in Harrison's apartment one day and explains how he's in charge of ensuring the last two turtles of a certain species breed. There's also a man who floats through the halls, as if it's the most natural thing in the world, and in this place, it apparently is.

All of this general strangeness isn't overwhelming, but like a riddle involving questionable math that's constantly interrupted before the anticlimactic climax, the focus on these bizarre goings-on and quirky characters feels like a delaying tactic. It forces us to constantly question the little specifics about this building and its occupants—as well as Karn, his methods, and his connection to a man (played by Shane West) who seems interested in casting Maria. Meanwhile, the bigger picture of Chariot—how Harrison ended up in this place, what that means about life and the other thing, and why any of this collection of peculiarities matters, beyond the basic weirdness of it—remains mostly untouched and decidedly unreachable.

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