Monday 4 February 2013

Chained (18)

Amazingly, this film is billed as a "film from Jennifer Lynch", as if this is a huge selling point.

Yes, she may be David's daughter, but she's still some way off having the same standing as the man who gave us Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks.

What she does have is a CV that contains the words Boxing Helena, and while forewarned is forearmed, nothing prepares you for what unfolds during Unchained.

The plot sounds interesting enough - a serial killer abducts a nine-year-old boy and his mother, kills the mother and then raises the lad as his 'son', training him in the ways of the family business as he grows up.

And it's beautifully shot. There's no arguing with the fact Jennifer knows how a film should look.
And the use of sound is great. No crashing score here, there's a sparseness to the sound which is reminiscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

And the performances are good. Vincent D'Onfrio is a convincing psychopath as Bob, while Eamon Farren is hauntingly fragile as the unfortunate Rabbit.

But somehow it all fails to come together.

After the initial flurry of suspense and terror, it all settles down to a crashing snore fest. There are times you should be scared, but you're not. You should be afraid, but you're not. You should care about what's happening to Rabbit, but you don't.

The bulk of the film is played out in a strangely detached manner, leaving the audience disengaged from what should be a tortuous, harrowing experience.

By the time Rabbit has to carry out his first kill, you're not remotely arsed what he's going through or what happens to his victim.

And the final twist just feels like Jennifer bottled it and went for a safe option.

You'll find yourself asking questions as the plot unfolds. Questions such as "why haven't the police cottoned on to this bloke yet? It's been at least ten years".

The fact this question gets answered with a handy line of dialogue suggests Jennifer was asking the very same questions, but couldn't find any dramatic or convincing answers.

This could have been a great film. The parts are all there. But even having Julia Ormond in it briefly (as Rabbit's mum) doesn't save it.

Released on Friday and already out on DVD, something tells me Chained won't be troubling the 'best seller' lists anytime soon.

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