3.5 stars out of 5
I don’t normally review DVDs but this had a very short theatrical run so back off, OK? I am somewhat obsessed with the films of Guy Maddin, insane genius from the north. If you’ve never seen one of his movies, I don’t think this is the place to start. I still feel The Saddest Music in the World is his best. But maybe it doesn’t matter where you begin. Just dive in and immerse yourself.
Keyhole is a Maddin movie, so there’s black-and-white, David Lynchian oddness, an old-timey feel, family obsession, a dream state, sly humor, and a naked dude. But that doesn’t mean he’s not mixing it up. We get a few glimpses of color. Rather than once again return to the silent era, this time he harks back to noir gangster films. We focus on the father more so than the mother. The humor is more subdued, and the dreamworld is more nightmarish, helped by a pretty frightening and cool soundtrack.
Did I ever read The Odyssey? I don’t remember. But even if I read it yesterday, I don’t know that I’d be fully able to piece this homage together. We have the father, Ulysses, who returns home and slowly attempts to reassemble his family history. It first seems like it might be a “bottle episode”, as Ulysses’s heist crew makes camp in the house. Ah, but it seems to be a haunted house, a bit reminiscent of American Horror Story season one. Hyacinth the wife, portrayed by Maddin regular Isabella Rossellini, is stuck in a bedroom. We can only see in or out through the titular keyhole. Oh yeah, her naked father is tied to the bed. Who’s alive? Who’s a ghost? Why is the young man in the closet playing Yahtzee?
I’m not certain it all comes together, or maybe that’s part of the point. Ulysses says he has shifted his pursuit from vengeance to forgiveness. We get hints of the tragedies that have taken place in the home. Ulysses tries to reconstruct a time when things were happier. I wasn’t as blown away as I’ve been with other Maddin films. It’s certainly not as beautiful looking. Instead, there’s more of a feel of those later on-tape Twilight Zone episodes, which does add to the creepiness. Kevin McDonald from Kids in the Hall is in this and it’s good to see him, but his comedic style doesn’t totally fit the mood here. So, not a total success but I still couldn’t look away, and I think the movie will stay with me for a while. Kudos to Guy Maddin for keeping things weird.
Shelly Duval in “Ice Nymphs” sent this 30 year old’s heart flip flapping away.
Another great one! And I loved “Careful.” All of them, really. Still need to see the vampire ballet.
There was a cool Barbershop scene in Nymphs if I remember right.