By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: Guy Maddin
Starring: Brooke Palsson | David Wontner | Isabella Rossellini | Jason Patric | Louis Negin | Udo Kier
Country: canada
Year: 2012
Running time: 94
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1674775/
Jason says: “Winnipeg-based director Guy Maddin has never been anything less than unconventional, but some of his more recent efforts have met the mainstream halfway; they were peculiar films but the audience didn’t have to take up residence in Maddin’s head to understand them. Despite having a few actors that the audience will recognize at the top of the cast, KEYHOLE is half a step back toward strange, but manages to be more intriguing than confusing.
“The cops have got gangster Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric) and his gang on the run, eventually cornering them in his mansion. It’s a terrible place to make a last stand, but escape seems to be far from Ulysses’s mind; he means to find his wife Hyacinth (Isabella Rossellini), who has shut herself in her bedroom since the death of most of their children. That sounds like it should not be difficult, but Ulysses’s memory isn’t working quite right, and he’s relying on a young woman (Brooke Palsson) to show him the way, but she seems both psychic and disoriented, likely as a result of her recent drowning.
“That will throw a person, but the lines separating life and death are different in KEYHOLE’s world. The mansion is filled with ghosts, and after the shootout ends, Ulysses asks those who have died to step outside, so that the police can get them to the morgue. Maddin and co-writer George Toles don’t specify the rigid rules of a fantasy universe here; while not every interaction between the living and the dead is weighty and symbolic (some are just crude jokes), the basic idea seems to be that death and loss can be handled in many different ways. Sometimes, the survivors can seem more like ghosts than the departed.
“Maddin and company don’t spend much time on that sort of overt philosophizing, though. That sort of thing is buried well below the surface, where gangsters say strange things in snappy ways, homemade electric chairs play into the plot, and the courtyard at the center of the house features a bottomless marsh. Some bits are laden with symbolism; others just seem to be peculiar ideas of Maddin’s that fit better here than anywhere else. It’s close to a fifty-fifty split between the delightfully absurd and the annoyingly obtuse, though there’s enough purpose in its oddity that multiple viewings will hopefully pull things together.
“That’s par for the course with Maddin, though. Fans of his will likely recognize his signature style by now – black-and-white cinematography that could come straight out of a surrealist silent movie married to soaring music and mannered dialogue that seems like a stranger version of an early talkie. The sets are crowded with junk and there are multiple exposures. He hasn’t become self-parody yet, at least, and his attempts to create a dream-like ambiance will often send the audience toward dreamland (at least, until he course-corrects by waving a penis in their face). He delivers some of the weirdest bits with the most energy.
“The cast is a bit split on that. Isabella Rossellini and Udo Kier, veterans of Maddin in particular and art-house peculiarity in general, almost seem too comfortable in this weird environment, their eccentric characters blending into other Rossellini and Kier roles. Jason Patric, meanwhile, seems to be having a blast, fully committing to every strange thing that Maddin has him say or do, getting to be old-school and new wave at once. Brooke Palsson manage to keep both feet firmly in the unreal while being easy to relate to.
“As ever, Maddin is not for everyone, and this is one of his more uneven efforts, though tilted toward the positive. If you’re in his a fan (or a potential fan, though predicting who fits into that group is tricky), it’s a fair example of his work; if you’re not, well, it’s a fair example of his work. 3.8 cats
“Seen 29 April 2012 in Somerville Theatre #5 (Independent Film Festival Boston 2012, digital)”
Chris says: “Guy Maddin’s latest could’ve just have easily been titled PORTAL or VORTEX; I’ve watched it three times and I’m still trying to make sense of it. I can tell you that it centers on Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric), a fugitive criminal who, with his motley gang in tow, returns to the family home after a long absence. His objective? To find estranged wife Hyacinth (Isabella Rossellini), who lies in wait in their upstairs bedroom. It sounds like a straightforward task until you consider that the house, ordinary on the surface, spatially appears as a seemingly endless labyrinth where memories and dreams converge and overlap. From one murky corridor to another, we witness screaming ghosts, mysterious shadows forever gliding across the walls and random oddities like a ramshackle, bicycle-powered electric chair.
“None of this should seem outlandish to anyone familiar with Maddin’s oeuvre. However, in addition to an ever-convoluted narrative and the usual black-and-white cinematography, he has thrown in a few new wrinkles. Stylistically, instead of the usual recreation of late-silent/early-sound cinema, he’s essentially crossed a film noir with a RKO horror flick (and a soundtrack to match). The sustained tone, while still containing flashes of macabre humor, is altogether more serious (if not at all somber). Patric’s presence also brings a new dynamic to the proceedings: although he meshes well with a typically eccentric Maddin ensemble (including both Kevin McDonald and Udo Kier!), his hard-boiled but nuanced and shrewd performance comes closest to giving the film a desperately needed center.
“But how to explain the naked old guy chained to Hyacinth’s bed (actually her father)? Or the bound-and-gagged young man and teen-aged girl (who recently drowned but seems alive, if not altogether well) that Pick holds captive and drags with him throughout the house? KEYHOLE piles one illusion on top of another memory on top of another apparition until it’s damn near impossible to keep up, or keep from giving up on the plot. One could argue that narrative cohesion isn’t the goal here, but often Pick seems like a mere stand-in for Maddin as he sifts through a collective unconscious of motifs stemming from personal interests and other things that amuse him.
“Coming after an impressive run comprising Maddin’s most accessible (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD), personal (MY WINNIPEG) and arguably original (BRAND UPON THE BRAIN!) works, KEYHOLE feels frustratingly transitional and obscure. Some may think all he’s doing here is further burrowing down his own rabbit hole, but the film also suggests a number of intriguing new directions the director could (and should) explore going forward. Perhaps it’s best for fans to view it as a few more pieces of a far-from-completed puzzle. 3.5 cats
(This film screened at the 2012 Independent Film Festival of Boston; it opens theatrically in the Boston area on June 1).”
Thom says: “When I first saw CAREFUL back in my demented winter of 1993 I knew I was in the presence of genius and yet back then there was no visionary in film distribution industry and thoughts of Mr. Maddin faded in my memory for nearly 8 years until I discovered some of his never-ending work on DVD. By the time 2003 rolled around I was more than ready for THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD, the film that finally brought him worldly acclaim and the film went on to win my coveted (LOL) BEST-FILM-OF-THE-YEAR award. Shortly thereafter I had seen all his past feature films and looked forward to the future. His next the brilliant docudrama MY WINNIPEG even exceeded expectations so when I learned KEYHOLE was to premiere at TIFF 2011 I was out of my mind with excitement. Sad to say, I was unable to be awarded a ticket so some 9 months later when it finally opened here in San Francisco I was half past ready & I lined up a date with brother Chuk & peerless friend Paul (both huge fans of Maddin). We arrived at the theatre to find it had already departed with no new venue scheduled. Brokenhearted, once again, I purchased the DVD on-line & finally was able to see it at home. So, it’s a difficult film to review as it really is a fever dream of a movie, that takes place almost all in one house as a returning gangster father, Ulysses Pick (Patric, his still handsome looks fading, goes from room-to-room searching for his wife. He arrives at the house where his ‘gang’ is holed up, although surrounded by the police. There’s the body of a teenage girl that may or may not be dead and a young man gagged and bound. There are also a number of dead people in the house and as one character dies after another instead of leaving the script they all become ghosts who still participate. Pick’s wife Hyacinth (an as always riveting Rossellini) is in a room upstairs but she also monitors the condition of her papa who is attached to an absurdly long chain to a bed. His only goal is to have his chains sawed off. The there’s the creepy Dr. Lemke (Udo Kier continuing to excel, why does he never get any awards?) who keeps popping up making pronouncements. Hyacinth & Ulysses’ son somehow shows up and his final scene is dazzling as the house comes back to life. The film has the tone of a horror film (albeit in Maddin’s now legendary style) but there’s nothing really scary in the film. Those offended by old-age nudity might want to give the film a pass, but I found it captivating, thrilling, mystifying, and my favorite type of curiosity piece. 5 cats”
Bruce says: “I’ve been a Guy Maddin fan for some time now. For me, Maddin hit his peak with MY WINNIPEG a strange amalgam of memoir, local history and the typical unique Maddin viewpoint related in his inimitable style. KEYHOLE is his first feature to follow that success although Maddin has made many short films in between.
“MY WINNIPEG is a wildly ambitious film and I suppose one could say that of KEYHOLE, too. His main character is Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric) who returns from the dead to his old family home, searching for his past, room-to-room. Hyacinth (Isabella Rossellini) is his main quest. But Ulysses gets more than he bargains for – many unpleasant memories also are regurgitated.
“Ulysses is a gangster of the worst sort and perhaps that is my problem with the film. There is nothing I care about here, neither the characters nor the outcome. I know something is very wrong when my biggest joy is finally getting to see the credits. In spite of my complaints, I cannot overlook Maddin’s prodigious skill in creating atmospheres unlike any other I have ever seen. He gets plenty of credit for his boundless imagination whether or not it is to my liking.
“Seeing KEYHOLE made me yearn for the feelings that MY WINNIPEG stirred up. Yearning for something that is not on screen is indeed frustrating and one of my least favorite moviegoing experiences. I hope to get those wonderful feelings back the when I see his next film. 3 cats”