I am not too sure what I can say about this latest effort from Ben Wheatley, I can confirm for fans of the director, this is a departure from Sightseers and Kill List by quite some way, so please do not expect anything of a similar ilk, in fact the upcoming Free Fire seems like he will be reverting back to what he does best.
Ok, let me explain the weirdness – the opening scene sees Tom Hiddlestone’s Dr. Laing petting a dog, in the very next scene we see Laing roasting one of its legs on a spit, strange but enough to get me interested as to how and why he has got into that situation, so far so good.
However, this could be one where ‘on the fence’ fans of Wheatley might not be able to see it through, as it really is a complex tale, both in terms of the story and the plethora of characters that you have to try to engage with.
Some of them are bit part players, others major and they are ll addressed by surname like they are in some sort of aristocratic time warp and to be perfectly honest, it is pretty difficult to keep up with just who is who and how they are linked, if they are even at all?!
The way the movie is delivered is unique in that it flits from scene to scene pretty rapidly and not in a way that makes sequential sense, although I think this is intentional, but again, it is hard to keep up with the story as the whole look and feel of the movie gets stranger and stranger.
The main floor for me is that the characters don’t evolve with the aforementioned strangeness, they are all odd from the get go –so there is no ramp up of how weird each character is going to be as they all seem to have a sinister edge, whereas with Kill List for example, the wife seemed lovely and ended up being really strange – the image of her laughing/crying at the end will stay with me as it was seriously eerie – which ticks a huge box for me.
Ultimately, the film never quite comes together, never gives off the feeling of a cohesive whole, but rather of a series of snippets of life in the high-rise. Each of these snippets is of course, beautifully shot, but the disconnect they cause makes it impossible to empathise with any of the characters.
Additionally, suspension of disbelief is near impossible. Why do the characters make the choices they do? What drives them to this madness?
Overall, I would recommend this piece to very loyal fans of any of the actors or to folk with a high degree of patience.