I love Tim Roth's work, but sure haven't heard that much about what is going on with this film. I'd love to hear more, or possibly see this one.
Lo, Harry. Long time reader, first time writer. I’m motivated to write because last Saturday night, I witnessed a picture at the San Francisco International Film Festival I feel to be truly special. It’s the best first film I’ve seen since God Knows When, possibly the best film I’ve seen thus far this year. What’s horrible is this film may never find the audience it properly deserves (as far as I know, no American distribution has been secured yet). I am talking about the directorial debut of British actor Tim Roth, THE WAR ZONE.
The story is told from the perspective of 15 year old Tom (non-actor Freddie Cunliffe), whose family has just moved from London to an isolated seaside town of few people. Aside from the occasional visit from a cleaning girl, the family appears to have little contact with the outside world. Dad (Ray Winstone, some may remember from Gary Oldman’s NIL BY MOUTH) has just moved his family here because of a supposedly promising job opportunity; though the occasional phone-call quarrels with superiors suggest things have been going less than well. His sister, Jessie (fellow non-actor Lara Belmont), is a girl of 18 years old and almost shocking beauty, with a womanliness well beyond her years. Mom (Tilda Swinton) has just gone through the trauma of bearing a third child in the middle of nowhere after a car accident en route the hospital.
It’s nice to see a movie in which the director actually lets the characters BEHAVE, rather than telegraphing their emotions for us. I think the film fest guide is correct in saying, “some of the most effective moments are those where silence allows gestures and looks to speak volumes.” He sometimes lets scenes run on when another director would have lopped them off; he lingers on close-ups of his actor’s expressions and lets them wander through wide shots of open countrysides.
Without giving too much away, I can say that Tom soon becomes obsessed with the notion that his sister is conducting an incestuous relationship with their father. Though his sister vehemently denies it, he soon starts acting as detective between his father and sister with almost frightening zeal. His suspicions are based solely on pretty flimsy evidence, yet we can’t help but get caught up in his investigation. When we discover, in one harrowing scene, that his suspicions are correct, it’s a shock—for him and us.
Being a teenager, I can say that the reactions both children give feel genuine. One of the most memorable scenes is one of the simplest: it’s afterwards, as Tom has just learned their secret. He goes into his room, pushes the cupboard over the door to barricade himself. He sullenly slouches at the edge of his bed, gazing out the window as father—a tiny figure of black on a field of green—appears, returning home.
Though this is certainly not an easy film, to take or to market, it’s certainly one worth seeing and one I could see a distinct, if modest, audience for – thanks to what I’m sure will be strong reviews (Roger Ebert called THE WAR ZONE the finest film he saw at this year’s sundance film festival.) It’s no more unmarketable than NIL BY MOUTH (and substantially better, if you ask me) and I could see this ideal for someone like Sony Picture Classics, Artisan, Lions Gate, a pre-Universal October, Fine Line, or even something smaller like Stratosphere or Strand. Roth, while bearing a resemblance to other British film makers like Ken Loach and Mike Leigh (NAKED especially), he has a poetic eye reminding me of Atom Egoyan or Steven Soderbergh (think a harsher KING OF THE HILL). THE WAR ZONE’s going to Cannes this month, pray with me that it picks up US distribution there.
