Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9 is virtually an impossible film to review, not because there isn't anything to say about it, but because Barney is primarily a visual and performance artist and his films reflect those origins to such a degree that they defy any sort of easy summary or categorization. Conventioanl narrative is gone entirely as Barney relies on a string of powerful images and a musical score provided by his wife and costar Bjork to drive home his points. There is not even dialogue to fall back on as the entire film - two and a half hours of it - contains only a handful of spoken lines. To many this will, no doubt, seem like nothing more than two and a half hours of pretentious wankery, but there is undoubtedly a purpose to Barney's work, a strong underlying point, it is just that it requires you to decipher his particular visual language to decipher it.
The story, such as this film has one, follows two 'Occidental Guests' - Barney's term - who board a Japanese whaling vessel and undergo a series of rituals loosely based on traditional Japanese marriage rites. The two arrive, are bathed, shaved, dressed in incredibly elaborate robes, take part in a tea ceremony and, finally, engage in a powerfully visceral - and often just plain unpleasant - transformation. The film is a constant barrage of stunning images - traditional dancers on parade; white clad pearl divers; the costuming; the enormous whale shaped mold on the ship's deck filled with what the program describes as liquid petroleum jelly but which looked far more like melted down fat to me.
Barney's imagery primarily revolves around human interactions with the natural world. His effects are distinctly and often disturbingly moist, they ooze and congeal, they are secreted rather than made. Ocean creatures are present everywhere from the fossil of the opening scene through to the shells and whale shapes present everywhere on the ship. While I doubt I unpacked even a third of Barney's images on first viewing - this is a densely packed film - the bulk of them seem to revolve around humanity's interaction with nature and the painful nature of love, both consuming and nourishing, destructive and creative. While I won't get into specifics and spoil the effect the eventual conclusion of the wedding ceremony is a stunningly executed piece of graphic unpleasantness that perfectly captures the double edged power of commitment to another person.
Music fans will want to know about Bjork's score and it is excellent as a score though I'm less certain of how it will work seperated from the film as it is some of her most abstract work. She fuses her electronic work with traditional Japanese sounds, reeds, chanting, her own voice and that of Wil Oldham. She is also remarkably comfortable on camera, often appear to belong more fully to this bizarre world than does even Barney himself, its creator, which makes a certain degree of sense.
Drawing Restraint 9 is a demanding film, one you have to be prepared to give some time and effort to. It does not give up its secrets easily. Many will simply not have the stomach or patience for it but it is definitely a worthwhile and significant piece of work. Not so much entertaining as enlightening it is a beautiful piece of work, huge in scope and flawless in execution.