TIFF 09: THE LAST DAYS OF EMMA BLANK Review

Emma Blank is dying.  And nobody seems particularly bothered, really.  Nobody except Emma herself, and for her part she's determined to milk every ounce of power she can out of her imminent demise.  She is cold, demanding, fickle.  She is dying, dammit, and a dying woman should get everything she wants.  So if she wants you to wear a false moustache, you wear a false moustache.  If she insists you live as if you were a dog, you live as if you were a dog.  That's just the way it is.  And suddenly it's quite clear why nobody is particularly upset that Emma is dying ...

The latest from Dutch favorite Alex Van Warmerdam - who also plays a key role in the film as dog-man Theo - The Last Days Of Emma Blank is a darker than dark comedy that comes to Toronto fresh from winning the Venice Days sidebar at the Venice Film Festival. 

A comedy about power and family and manipulation, Emma Blank begins and ends with, well, Emma Blank.  As brought to life by Marlies Heuer, Emma is the harsh mistress of her own domain, fickle and demanding and so cold as to literally have forced her own family to take on the roles of indentured servants and family pet.  Her long estranged husband is the butler.  Her daughter the maid.  Her sister the cook and nephew the gardener.  And the aforementioned Theo?  Her older brother.  It doesn't take a genius to realize that they're all just in it for the potential inheritance so when things start going bad they go bad indeed.

Emma Blank is one of those films that appears to be one thing on the surface but give that shiny veneer just the tiniest scratch and all sorts of darkness begins to emerge.  And this is both the point and strength of the film - everyone enjoys watching people behaving badly, after all - but also the weakness as all of these people are ultimately so vile that it's hard to get behind any of them.

Adapted from a play and performed by many of the original actors, Emma Blank is very much an ensemble piece with each player and each part shining at different times.  The performances are universally solid as is the direction from Van Warmerdam, easily one of the Netherlands' most reliable and interesting talents.  Though not ultimately one of Van Warmerdam's best works it is nevertheless very entertaining, very well crafted stuff.