Fantasia 2011: RETREAT Review
A claustrophobic thriller with a trio of deeply damaged people at its heart, Carl Tibbetts' Retreat is a promising debut from a gifted writer-director. By keeping the focus tight on his core trio Tibbets creates an unsettling world, continually shifting the ground beneath the audience's feet and leaving them guessing until the last possible moment whether what they are witnessing is a very small slice of a very large story or just the ravings of a psychotic madman.
Their marriage in trouble Kate and Martin (Thandie Newton and Cillian Murphy) have sought solace in solitude, the pair seeking out the quiet of a remote island where they have shared happier times in the past. The isolation is the appeal, they are truly alone as temporary residents of the islands only cottage with nothing to keep them company but the dramatic landscapes, pounding waves, a CB radio and each other. Nice idea, but it doesn't go well, Kate so thoroughly caught up in her own depression that she rebuffs all of Martin's attempts at connecting without a second thought.
But everything changes when a third person enters the person, a lone man in military uniform who collapses in a field just outside the house with a gun tucked in his pants and blood streaming down his face. This is Jack (Jamie Bell) and he brings bad news. You see, according to Jack, there has been a viral outbreak on the mainland. It is airborne, highly contagious and consistently fatal. Survivors will soon be flooding the island looking for refuge, some of them no doubt bringing the virus with them assuming the shifting winds don't do it first. If the trio are to survive they must seal the house, barricade themselves in and fight off anyone who approaches.
It's an outlandish story but without a boat of their own and with Jack's having sunk they have no way off the island without help from the mainland. And the only way to get that is by hailing someone on the CB which seems to have broken down. There is simply nowhere to go and no choice but to trust Jack's words. And if they don't ... well, Jack does have a gun and a willingness to employ violence to get his way.
With actors the caliber of Newton, Murphy and Bell you expect greatness in the performances, nothing less. And while Bell is clearly the standout of the three in by far the most charismatic role, all three due indeed deliver finely wrought, tightly nuanced performances. While there are some logical hiccups in places, the occasional moment that leaves you wondering why the characters are making the choices they are - Answer: They're meant to be actual people, none of whom have any training to deal with something like this and so, of course, make dodgy choices from time to time - and perhaps an urge to make the story more complex than it truly needs to be on the whole Retreat is a careful constructed and closely observed thriller that relies on its audience to wrestle with the questions of what is real, what is not, and how much are you willing to risk to find out just as Kate and Martin do. Thanks to its tightly confined setting it is sure to draw comparisons to Dead Calm, Right At Your Door and films of that ilk and it stands up well with that crowd.
Retreat has proven to be a divisive title here at Fantasia with the audience split sharply into positive and negative camps on the film. It's worth noting that most of the negatives are based not on performance or construction of the film - everyone seems to agree that the actors are excellent and technical quality is very high - but more a matter of personal identification with Kate and Martin as people. But starting the story with the couple already in crisis Tibbetts does not present either in the most sympathetic light at the outset and there is a feeling among some that this makes it harder to care what happens with them farther down the line. It's a fair enough point and one being made commonly enough that it should be noted but, from this perspective at least, I felt the film did a remarkable job of presenting them as real people with real issues and had no such issue.
Their marriage in trouble Kate and Martin (Thandie Newton and Cillian Murphy) have sought solace in solitude, the pair seeking out the quiet of a remote island where they have shared happier times in the past. The isolation is the appeal, they are truly alone as temporary residents of the islands only cottage with nothing to keep them company but the dramatic landscapes, pounding waves, a CB radio and each other. Nice idea, but it doesn't go well, Kate so thoroughly caught up in her own depression that she rebuffs all of Martin's attempts at connecting without a second thought.
But everything changes when a third person enters the person, a lone man in military uniform who collapses in a field just outside the house with a gun tucked in his pants and blood streaming down his face. This is Jack (Jamie Bell) and he brings bad news. You see, according to Jack, there has been a viral outbreak on the mainland. It is airborne, highly contagious and consistently fatal. Survivors will soon be flooding the island looking for refuge, some of them no doubt bringing the virus with them assuming the shifting winds don't do it first. If the trio are to survive they must seal the house, barricade themselves in and fight off anyone who approaches.
It's an outlandish story but without a boat of their own and with Jack's having sunk they have no way off the island without help from the mainland. And the only way to get that is by hailing someone on the CB which seems to have broken down. There is simply nowhere to go and no choice but to trust Jack's words. And if they don't ... well, Jack does have a gun and a willingness to employ violence to get his way.
With actors the caliber of Newton, Murphy and Bell you expect greatness in the performances, nothing less. And while Bell is clearly the standout of the three in by far the most charismatic role, all three due indeed deliver finely wrought, tightly nuanced performances. While there are some logical hiccups in places, the occasional moment that leaves you wondering why the characters are making the choices they are - Answer: They're meant to be actual people, none of whom have any training to deal with something like this and so, of course, make dodgy choices from time to time - and perhaps an urge to make the story more complex than it truly needs to be on the whole Retreat is a careful constructed and closely observed thriller that relies on its audience to wrestle with the questions of what is real, what is not, and how much are you willing to risk to find out just as Kate and Martin do. Thanks to its tightly confined setting it is sure to draw comparisons to Dead Calm, Right At Your Door and films of that ilk and it stands up well with that crowd.
Retreat has proven to be a divisive title here at Fantasia with the audience split sharply into positive and negative camps on the film. It's worth noting that most of the negatives are based not on performance or construction of the film - everyone seems to agree that the actors are excellent and technical quality is very high - but more a matter of personal identification with Kate and Martin as people. But starting the story with the couple already in crisis Tibbetts does not present either in the most sympathetic light at the outset and there is a feeling among some that this makes it harder to care what happens with them farther down the line. It's a fair enough point and one being made commonly enough that it should be noted but, from this perspective at least, I felt the film did a remarkable job of presenting them as real people with real issues and had no such issue.
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