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“Whelm” is a very dark picture.
Usually when people say this about a film, they’re talking about its thematic elements. And certainly this drama set during the Great Depression, about two master criminals and a pair of brothers who become embroiled in their rivalry, qualifies in that regard.
But mostly I’m talking about actual darkness. As in, this is one of the most impenetrably black movies I’ve ever seen. So much so that I frequently had trouble making out what was happening on the screen.
It’s unclear to me if writer/director/producer Skyler Lawson and cinematographer Edward Herrera intended for the finished project to be this murky. They’re going for a classic, old-timey look that relies heavily on natural lighting. They come up with some pretty startling imagery, with characters ringed by shadow and only parts of their face and body distinguishable.
Often, though, entire scenes play out where you can barely see the actors at all. They are just shapes shuffling about, unseen voices in the gloom.
Long on mood and tension, this feature – filmed almost entirely in Wabash County, Ind. – suffers from languid pacing and the aforementioned visual inscrutability. It’s got a lot going for it, including some lyrical dialogue and an all-around solid cast of performers.
It just needed to be shorter, and a lot brighter.
Ronan Colfer and Dylan Grunn play August and Reed, respectively, estranged brothers brought together for a grim purpose. Their family’s hotel, the Charley Creek Inn, has just been robbed and their father, Jonas (Mark Hoover), sorely wounded by a mysterious conman who wheeled in a huge block of ice. Ice? In October?
The perpetrator actually introduced himself and gave his name: Alexander Aleksy – he’s even helpful with the spelling. He’s exotic and foreign – Russian? Middle Eastern? – speaks in a sideways sort of way, and is brimming with confidence. He carefully leaves a note letting them know where they can meet him to have their money returned.
Aleksy is played by Delil Baran in a performance of delicious charisma and mystery. He’s the highlight of the picture, always seemingly a few steps of the other characters.
Francesca Anderson plays Edie, who works at the inn and has romantic entanglements with the family. She encourages and manipulates them while seeming to be just a pawn.
The other big role is Grant Schumacher as Jimmy, a notorious bank robber who’s also known as John. He and Aleksy play a cat-and-mouse dance in which each seems to be setting each other up. It’s a deadly game of one-upmanship.
In the film’s most electric scene, the two men encounter each other in an Indiana field somewhere near Peru. Aleksy demonstrates his benevolent intentions by showing up bound to a chair, helpless. Yet he seems to hold all the power in the exchange.
I liked a lot of things about “Whelm.” The music by Chris Dudley is terrific, a mostly non-melodic collections of hums and hymns. The little period details in costumes and props, often hovered over in extreme close-up, are spot on. The cast is uniformly good, with even the walk-on roles having heft and authenticity.
If it weren’t for all that damn blackness…
It can be a good thing to deliberately keep your audience off-balance, questioning and thinking. That’s keeping them engaged. But you don’t want them to spend a large bulk of the experience asking, “What am I looking at?”
There are the bones of a terrific movie here. Alas, glimpsed through a glass, too darkly.