Go Gentle Into That Dark Night
What, you forgot my background is in literature?
Dark Water is the most depressing movie I've seen in a long time. And I saw it the day after Munich. Trust me, Dark Water makes Munich look positively jolly in comparison.
Horrors and thrillers are supposed to be fun. It's fun to be scared for your characters. It's fun to worry what's around the next corner, and then have the catharsis of finding something scary. And it's fun to watch your character rise up and do battle for her life.
But this, this is a no-fun zone.
There's no rising up. There's mild resistance. Then there's barely-above-a-whisper pleading. Then some pill-popping. And then, because it all just keeps getting worse, there's a whole lot of bending over.
The story just feels unfair to the protagonist. Event after event, it feels like she has no possible chance of fixing things and making her life better. This world is stacked against her and she seems semi-defeated by it most of the time.
It's not a good sign when one wonders partway through if death for the hero might actually be the kinder option. At least then her suffering would be over.
Heroes need to suffer. But they also have to have a chance! They've got to have the occasional win so we have some hope for them. When there's no hope, we don't actually care what's around the next corner. So long as our suffering ends soon.
Apologies to the men I lured into watching this with me with the promise that we'd be seeing Jennifer Connolly wet. I didn't know you'd just want to throw a blanket over her.
What, you forgot my background is in literature?
Dark Water is the most depressing movie I've seen in a long time. And I saw it the day after Munich. Trust me, Dark Water makes Munich look positively jolly in comparison.
Horrors and thrillers are supposed to be fun. It's fun to be scared for your characters. It's fun to worry what's around the next corner, and then have the catharsis of finding something scary. And it's fun to watch your character rise up and do battle for her life.
But this, this is a no-fun zone.
There's no rising up. There's mild resistance. Then there's barely-above-a-whisper pleading. Then some pill-popping. And then, because it all just keeps getting worse, there's a whole lot of bending over.
The story just feels unfair to the protagonist. Event after event, it feels like she has no possible chance of fixing things and making her life better. This world is stacked against her and she seems semi-defeated by it most of the time.
It's not a good sign when one wonders partway through if death for the hero might actually be the kinder option. At least then her suffering would be over.
Heroes need to suffer. But they also have to have a chance! They've got to have the occasional win so we have some hope for them. When there's no hope, we don't actually care what's around the next corner. So long as our suffering ends soon.
Apologies to the men I lured into watching this with me with the promise that we'd be seeing Jennifer Connolly wet. I didn't know you'd just want to throw a blanket over her.
posted by Jennica at 6:49 a.m.
7 Comments:
What mild resistance?
The problem is, a fan of this film could look at your comments about Jennifer Connolly's character being better off dead, and say, "Well, yes, and the movie pays that off."
I agree with you, but it's easier to defend the stance that the movie just wasn't fucking scary. It was intermittently creepy, and that's being generous. (The washing machine managed to give me the low-grade willies.) It was completely ham-handed tonally. Mindbendingly bleak =/= scary.
The Ring didn't need it to be raining in every fucking scene, you know?
Not to pass the buck from the writing. I'm just saying it's an easier argument to make. Why make life more difficult?
Well, Jeff --and thank you for stopping by-- I didn't think "Dark Water wasn't fucking scary" was substantial enough for a post.
I think I can defend my stance, though. Movies aren't scary just because of tone, right? Isn't it also about the will-they-or-won't-they -survive-ness? And our, you know, having *some* investment in the outcome?
Don't we find Halloween fun because we hope that Jamie Lee will make it out alive, and if she does, it will be because she deserves to?
Whether Jennifer died here or not is almost beside the point... she simply didn't deserve to live.
And yet, death wasn't particularly meaningful either (i.e. it wasn't like Jennifer needed to understand what it means to sacrifice... she did nothing but sacrifice the entire friggin' movie).
I just don't know if we can get involved in a story where there's no hope at all.
I had more hope for Jennifer's character in Requiem for a Dream, for crying out loud. At least then there were moments when a better future seemed possible.
Do you see how I'm slowly honing in on my point?
Oh, Jennica, you passive-aggressive devil, you.
Post something mildly controversial on your blog, and maybe then we won't have to fight about something that we agree on. You're just too sensible.
Look, what you say is 100% spot-on. I guess my complaint with your post was that you were focusing on the trappings of the story "being against" her character, but yes, as you clarify above, the problem is the character herself.
Why the hell didn't they play her ex as someone she considered going to, despite his philandering--you know, to get out of the haunted, flooded, disease-ridden apartment for the sake of her child--only for it to be yanked away somehow?
The Tim Roth character--a bright spot in this dismal piece of shit--could have been used in this way too. Potential for escape, action on her part, then--yoink.
Why?
See, now we're agreeing again. Isn't that compelling reading.
Okay. How's this:
Lawrence of Arabia is boring.
I hate it when mommy and daddy fight...
So you chose to see Dark Water right after seeing Munich?
Um, Jennica...? I'm a fan of the dark, myself, but cheeze-louise --
you might've opted for the Marx Brothers...
Would it help to know I've been on a steady diet of Veronica Mars, Season One, ever since?
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