Fantasia '06, Day 1: The Descent and Seven Swords

Well, in good news, I wasn't quite so worn out as I was last year, or at least I didn't think so. I think I walked my way into trouble - the hotel I'm staying at is about a mile or two from the screenings, and it's probably a good rule of thumb that if you pass more than two subway stations, you probably should have been taking the subway. The Descent was fantastic, but Seven Swords had me jerking my head forward as I realized I was drifting off. Not much of an indictment against the movie - hopefully I got the inevitable day where I overestimate my capabilities out of the way quickly.

The tentative plan for tonight is Dirty Ho and Princess Aurora in the J.A. de Sève theater, followed by A Bittersweet Life and Art of the Devil 2 in the main hall. The timing between the two is tight, though, so I may either knock off early and write the first two up or find some food and give Forest of the Dead a shot.

The Descent

* * * * (out of four)
Seen 6 July 2006 at Théâtre Hall Concordia (Fantasia Festival 2006)

The Descent doesn't mess around on its way to being the best action-horror movie to come down the pipe in a while. It tosses out a couple of nasty deaths early, gives us danger enough for two thrillers, never lets up, and never takes a break for arguments that can really wait until the characters have survived the next five seconds.

What you need to know: Six women - mostly from the U.K. - are using their vacation to explore a cave system that their American friend recently found in North Carolina. Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) lost her husband and daughter a year before; Beth (Alex Reid) is her best friend. Rebecca (Saskia Mulder) is a maternal-type English teacher taking the trip with her less-experienced sister Sam (MyAnna Buring), a med student. Organizing the trip is Juno (Natalie Mendoza), who hasn't told the group that the cave system is not the well-explored one she implied but in fact one that's not on any map, and Holly (Nora-Jane Noone), her daredevil protégé with an even more acute tendency to leap before she looks. So, things are bad enough when a cave-in seals off their entrance; when they realize that they may not be alone...

Writer/director Neil Marshall was last seen with Dog Soldiers, and while it's unfortunate that he apparently can't crank out one or two good genre films a year, the three-year wait for his follow-up is well worth it. Dog Soldiers could occasionally get a little scattered, but The Descent is tightly focused in its tension, not giving more than a few moments' respite when things start to go downhill, but also showing a great deal of skill in how it constructs its story and gets us involved in the characters. We know that Sarah's going to be the one we're spending the most time with - she, after all, has the personal tragedy in the prologue - but we're introduced to the others without a lot of expository dialogue or obvious "Hello, my name is _______, and my personality trait is..." situations. The relationships between the characters are simple, but have the feel of history behind them; we know it's going to hurt when they're picked off.

It's interesting (and will probably be a cliché in this film's reviews) to note that the main characters are all women - only one man has a speaking part and he's gone about ten minutes in, but I don't think there's any kind of statement being made other than "let's not waste any time on sexual tension". It is pretty cool to see an action/adventure movie entirely populated by capable women that doesn't treat their attractiveness as one of their main assets in getting the job done. You put men in this movie, and at some point it's going to be a question of male/female dynamics, and while there's a good movie to be made like that, this one does just fine without. Plus, men wouldn't stand a chance of getting through some of the passages the ladies have to crawl through, so they'd be dead anyway.

That it's these specific women is something of a plus, too. Shauna Macdonald merits a comparison to Linda Hamilton in the Terminator movies; she starts out untested but cranks up the intensity to the point of being a force not to be messed with in the end. She's a nice contrast to Natalie Mendoza, whose good looks and ability to sell her character's athleticism and skill provide good camouflage for how irresponsible Juno is, even if she can handle herself when it's time to throw down. Alex Reid brings warmth to Beth without making her excessively touchy-feely, and Nora-Jane Noone gets some good snark in her part. Sasika Mulder and MyAnna Buring kind of wind up in the position where their being less involved in the main dynamic makes them look like cannon fodder, but they're pleasant enough.

All this would be for naught if The Descent wasn't good at making the audience jump or scream, which it is. Things go wrong at just the right moments, and Marshall uses his setting's natural ability to induce claustrophobia well, while also managing to open things up a little more when he needs room to fight. It's nice to see caves that look natural, rather than sixties-sci-fi-show deals with flat floors that just look like a darkened sound stage. He's not shy with the blood, either, getting his cast involved in some brutal fights and dealing out at least one nasty "that really should stay inside" injury. The editing's got occasional "just show us what's going on" moments, but sorts itself out nicely by the end.

(Note: I gather the version I saw was the American version, which cuts one bit from the end, but I kind of think adding another shock would have been a little much.)

Hopefully The Descent gets a better shot in American theaters than Dog Soldiers did; I think the latter maybe had a blip in rep places before heading to cable. It certainly deserves that shot, and to become a hit; it's darn good from start to finish.

(Formerly at EFC)


Seven Swords (Chat Gim)

* * ¾ (out of four) (incomplete)
Seen 6 July 2006 at Théâtre Hall Concordia (Fantasia Festival 2006)

Tsui Hark's new martial arts epic is beautiful and action-packed, but also exhausting. It likely doesn't help that I was already drained from the bus ride and the hike from the hotel and all that, but you know how people will hear a thick book is being adapted for film and say "this should really be a TV mini-series; a two-hour film won't do it justice"? Seven Swords will be the test of that; the same sets and (I think) much of the same crew to make a mini-series (Seven Swordsmen) which will have much more room to breathe than the 2.5-hour feature.

And, don't get me wrong, if I could see the feature version again without bumping something else off my festival to-do list, I'd be happy to do so. It's got a pretty nice cast, a lot of action, and it really looks like no expense was spared in the making. It also seems to have a big fight scene roughly every ten minutes, too many characters for me to keep track of while regularly conking out, and perhaps over-stylized action.

There's a couple TBA slots still left on the Fantasia schedule; maybe Seven Swords will get one of them, in which case I'll give a more useful report.