I found another recent film starring Claus Bang, a week ago I wrote about another of his films. I liked that one, but this one was not to my liking.
What is the plot? Will and Rosalind are a happy couple, she has twin daughters from another relationship. She has a son with Will, who was born prematurely due to a dangerous accident in the new home. That fact is the trigger for Rosalind to act strangely for several months, until one day she disappears with the children, the same day she receives a package. Will begins the search for his wife and son, discovering facts from the past that he never imagined. He manages to find her, but a horrible tragedy has occurred, but he does not want to go to the authorities. He decides to hide everything, with the help of Rosalind's stepfather, the rich businessman, Milton. But Will will continue to investigate on his own, because he is determined to discover the truth of what happened.
The film is an adaptation of the novel The Bay of Silence, published in 1986 by British writer Lisa St Aubin of Tehran, with more than twenty books published since the early eighties. I have not read any of her novels and I could not find any references to another film adaptation.
If this film had been made in the same decade that the novel was published, it would surely have been a success, because although it has been adapted and the plot is set in the present day, the characters and actions are not of today's people. Adapting an old story to the present day is not just about introducing cell phones or video calls. The story loses a little sense of mystery with today's technological tools to find out almost everything.
The film also suffers from excessive melodrama, this defect comes from its original source, the novel. The little accident in the new house, the same day they move in, was too much. Even without that accident, the birth could be the trigger to bring back the memories of the past. If it had been changed by a traffic accident, it would have worked better.
History makes clear what the mystery of the past is, something I reproach it for, because it leaves no room for surprise, everything is so obvious that sometimes it made me yawn. For example, the first scene in which Milton, Rosalind's stepfather, appears. Will's gaze, focused on what Milton is doing, tells us that he is the villain of the film. Too obvious.
To make a mystery interesting and keep us interested in discovering it, we must use writing tricks to fool us, mislead us, and ultimately surprise us with the revelations. In this film there is an absence of all that. We quickly deduce the mystery of the past and, what is worse, we also quickly deduce who is behind it all.
I have another reproach, the decision Will makes upon discovering the horrible tragedy, as much as he loves his wife, I think it's hard to believe anyone would act that way. I have done an exercise, imagining different alternatives for the character, especially if we place him in the present, and there are many more credible actions than the one shown in the film.
The story is very irregular, old-fashioned, set in our time, but with characters who act as if they were living in the eighties. With a mystery that is not so disturbing and an ending that I found almost ridiculous. The typical encounter between the protagonists and the villain who tells it all in a hysterical way, in the style of a final episode of the series Law and Order, but without the police.
Filmmaker Paula van der Oest is in charge of directing the film. I saw it some years ago, the excellent film Lucia de B, based on the real case of a nurse who killed babies and old people for several years. It was a great film. I will look for more fim from this director, I think she is a good European filmmaker, the defects of The Bay of Silence come from the original product.
Claes Bang plays Will, the happy man with his almost perfect new family, who must embark on the discovery of his wife's past, to understand everything that has happened. A few days ago I reviewed another film with Claes Bang as the main character, but I have not yet seen The Square, the film that made him famous in Europe. I have seen a lot of praise for Bang, but I am still not completely convinced. I do not know if it is a marketing strategy that many articles speak very well of the actor, I will continue to review his filmography, hoping that it will make me change my mind about the actor. I found his character boring.
The Bond girl, Olga Kurylenko, plays Rosalind, the beautiful mother of the twins who wants to be happy with the man she loves, but hides a trauma from the past, something her partner never realized during the months of their marriage. The model and actress has focused on her film career, in 2019 many films were released in which she works. I like her attitude, even though she chooses some irregular films, like this one, her character is the best built, she is not just a pretty face on the screen, she gives the best of herself to create her character.
The third actor in the main cast is Brian Cox, playing Milton, Rosalind's stepfather who has money and influence, behind his kindness he hides dark secrets from the past. A character that could have been better, if he had played with that duality of being good or bad, but that from the beginning suggests directly that he is the bad one. The current star of the successful Succession series makes a character similar to the one in the series. I think he is wasted in this movie.
The Bay of Silence has elements that could have been developed differently, so that the story is not so predictable. A respectable cast, a director with good previous films, are not enough when you keep the characters acting differently from the times we live in. The images show us the present, but what the characters do seems to be from thirty years ago.
I didn't like the film, it's regular. But you can like it. Watch the trailer and if it catches your attention, you can watch it on the weekend.
My Ranking: 2.5/5
Trailer
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