|
|
THE WAVE (2020)
Director: Gille Klabin Cast: Justin Long, Donald Faison, Sheila Vand, Katia Winter, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Tommy Flanagan, Sarah Minnich, Bill Sage MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:27 Release Date: 1/17/20 (limited) |
|
Review by Mark Dujsik | January 16, 2020 Carl W. Lucas' screenplay for The Wave certainly keeps us from knowing what might and could come next. That's mostly, though, because it seems to be making up the rules as the movie progresses. Such an approach is certainly an easy way for a movie to surprise us, but it also comes across as cheap and manipulative. When anything is possible from one scene to the next, in what are we supposed to be invested? How can we even follow along with what's happening? The gist of this story is that Frank (Justin Long), a lawyer for an insurance company, goes on a drug-fueled trip. After finding a way for his company to get out of paying a major life insurance policy, Frank decides to celebrate for once—to escape his wife Cheryl (Sarah Minnich), who goes from nagging bore to pure harpy without any warning. At a club, he and his co-worker Jeff (Donald Faison) meet Theresa (Sheila Vand), with whom Frank has a combative but engaging chat, and Natalie (Katia Winter). The quartet heads off to a party. That's where Frank and Theresa use a hallucinogenic drug, provided by the mysterious Aeolus (Tommy Flanagan). In the morning, Frank wakes up in the empty house. He loses track of time and space, going from his home to the office in a flash, and Theresa has gone missing. With Jeff and Natalie, Frank sets out to find the missing woman and figure out how to stop the trip he's on. Director Gille Klabin uses assorted visual tricks to give us a sense of Frank's experience, from certain events happening in slow-motion, while everything around it happens at normal speed, to people being distorted by a semi-rotoscoping effect. That's nothing compared to the plot, which incorporates Frank jumping from space to space, having visions of Theresa amidst a hyper-clear view of the stars in the sky, and, eventually, being able to affect events in the past to help him get out of trouble in the present. The point of all these unclear narrative mechanics is that Frank has to learn to be a better person. The Wave is so concerned with how much and how often it can trick us that the movie's entire purpose feels like just another shallow, impromptu trick. It's pulled out in the third act, more as an excuse than a reason. Copyright © 2020 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
Buy Related Products
|
(for
strong drug content and language throughout, some disturbing images and
sexual references)
