Janet McTeer, who co-scripted "The Intended" with director Kristian Levring, delivers a fearless performance as the title character. That genteel terminology for "fiancee" stands as ironic comment in what amounts to an unrelenting descent into hell for the characters and, to a lesser degree, the audience.
Contributions of the accomplished cast notwithstanding, this period drama takes a few too many spins around the downward spiral, making it hard to believe as well as unpleasant. The U.K.-Danish co-production, which opens Friday in Los Angeles and New York, will have a tough road on the domestic art house circuit.
In 1924, 40ish Sarah (McTeer, who received an Oscar nom for "Tumbleweeds") and her twentysomething lover, Hamish (JJ Feild), arrive in a remote ivory-trading post in an unspecified Asian country. He has taken a job as a surveyor, a lucrative assignment that represents a fresh start for them. Having left behind England's postwar economy and Sarah's unhappy marriage, the couple are full of hope -- until they see the lay of the land and the handful of expats who populate it.
Running the colonial outpost is Mrs. Jones (Brenda Fricker), who, in her short hair and long skirts, resembles a Gertrude Stein whose art is not literature but psychological torture. Her chief victim is her son, William (Tony Maudsley), an overgrown schoolboy in his mid-30s. Countering her emasculating heartlessness is the ghoulish devotion of Erina (Olympia Dukakis), William's one-time nanny. Her fierce loyalty ensnares Sarah in a desperate psychosexual game of survival.
The disastrous cycle of events begins with William's extreme reaction when he learns that his mother intends to leave the business to her nephew (Philip Jackson). Recognizing at last the community's depravity, the resident priest (a haunting turn from David Bradley) surrenders to the heart of darkness, making it clear that nothing good will come of this situation.
Levring, a Danish commercials director whose feature debut was the English-language Dogme film "The King Is Alive", effectively strips away the romance of the exotic through insistently unpretty DV visuals by cinematographer Jens Schlosser. There's a powerful sense of immersion in the Malaysian locations, the humidity and dank green light all but palpable.
Diving into the baser instincts, McTeer and Maudsley hold nothing back. But the story's dark twists sometimes verge on parody, and with most characters so far past the point of no return, it's difficult to care what becomes of them.
Contributions of the accomplished cast notwithstanding, this period drama takes a few too many spins around the downward spiral, making it hard to believe as well as unpleasant. The U.K.-Danish co-production, which opens Friday in Los Angeles and New York, will have a tough road on the domestic art house circuit.
In 1924, 40ish Sarah (McTeer, who received an Oscar nom for "Tumbleweeds") and her twentysomething lover, Hamish (JJ Feild), arrive in a remote ivory-trading post in an unspecified Asian country. He has taken a job as a surveyor, a lucrative assignment that represents a fresh start for them. Having left behind England's postwar economy and Sarah's unhappy marriage, the couple are full of hope -- until they see the lay of the land and the handful of expats who populate it.
Running the colonial outpost is Mrs. Jones (Brenda Fricker), who, in her short hair and long skirts, resembles a Gertrude Stein whose art is not literature but psychological torture. Her chief victim is her son, William (Tony Maudsley), an overgrown schoolboy in his mid-30s. Countering her emasculating heartlessness is the ghoulish devotion of Erina (Olympia Dukakis), William's one-time nanny. Her fierce loyalty ensnares Sarah in a desperate psychosexual game of survival.
The disastrous cycle of events begins with William's extreme reaction when he learns that his mother intends to leave the business to her nephew (Philip Jackson). Recognizing at last the community's depravity, the resident priest (a haunting turn from David Bradley) surrenders to the heart of darkness, making it clear that nothing good will come of this situation.
Levring, a Danish commercials director whose feature debut was the English-language Dogme film "The King Is Alive", effectively strips away the romance of the exotic through insistently unpretty DV visuals by cinematographer Jens Schlosser. There's a powerful sense of immersion in the Malaysian locations, the humidity and dank green light all but palpable.
Diving into the baser instincts, McTeer and Maudsley hold nothing back. But the story's dark twists sometimes verge on parody, and with most characters so far past the point of no return, it's difficult to care what becomes of them.
Janet McTeer, who co-scripted "The Intended" with director Kristian Levring, delivers a fearless performance as the title character. That genteel terminology for "fiancee" stands as ironic comment in what amounts to an unrelenting descent into hell for the characters and, to a lesser degree, the audience.
Contributions of the accomplished cast notwithstanding, this period drama takes a few too many spins around the downward spiral, making it hard to believe as well as unpleasant. The U.K.-Danish co-production, which opens Friday in Los Angeles and New York, will have a tough road on the domestic art house circuit.
In 1924, 40ish Sarah (McTeer, who received an Oscar nom for "Tumbleweeds") and her twentysomething lover, Hamish (JJ Feild), arrive in a remote ivory-trading post in an unspecified Asian country. He has taken a job as a surveyor, a lucrative assignment that represents a fresh start for them. Having left behind England's postwar economy and Sarah's unhappy marriage, the couple are full of hope -- until they see the lay of the land and the handful of expats who populate it.
Running the colonial outpost is Mrs. Jones (Brenda Fricker), who, in her short hair and long skirts, resembles a Gertrude Stein whose art is not literature but psychological torture. Her chief victim is her son, William (Tony Maudsley), an overgrown schoolboy in his mid-30s. Countering her emasculating heartlessness is the ghoulish devotion of Erina (Olympia Dukakis), William's one-time nanny. Her fierce loyalty ensnares Sarah in a desperate psychosexual game of survival.
The disastrous cycle of events begins with William's extreme reaction when he learns that his mother intends to leave the business to her nephew (Philip Jackson). Recognizing at last the community's depravity, the resident priest (a haunting turn from David Bradley) surrenders to the heart of darkness, making it clear that nothing good will come of this situation.
Levring, a Danish commercials director whose feature debut was the English-language Dogme film "The King Is Alive", effectively strips away the romance of the exotic through insistently unpretty DV visuals by cinematographer Jens Schlosser. There's a powerful sense of immersion in the Malaysian locations, the humidity and dank green light all but palpable.
Diving into the baser instincts, McTeer and Maudsley hold nothing back. But the story's dark twists sometimes verge on parody, and with most characters so far past the point of no return, it's difficult to care what becomes of them.
Contributions of the accomplished cast notwithstanding, this period drama takes a few too many spins around the downward spiral, making it hard to believe as well as unpleasant. The U.K.-Danish co-production, which opens Friday in Los Angeles and New York, will have a tough road on the domestic art house circuit.
In 1924, 40ish Sarah (McTeer, who received an Oscar nom for "Tumbleweeds") and her twentysomething lover, Hamish (JJ Feild), arrive in a remote ivory-trading post in an unspecified Asian country. He has taken a job as a surveyor, a lucrative assignment that represents a fresh start for them. Having left behind England's postwar economy and Sarah's unhappy marriage, the couple are full of hope -- until they see the lay of the land and the handful of expats who populate it.
Running the colonial outpost is Mrs. Jones (Brenda Fricker), who, in her short hair and long skirts, resembles a Gertrude Stein whose art is not literature but psychological torture. Her chief victim is her son, William (Tony Maudsley), an overgrown schoolboy in his mid-30s. Countering her emasculating heartlessness is the ghoulish devotion of Erina (Olympia Dukakis), William's one-time nanny. Her fierce loyalty ensnares Sarah in a desperate psychosexual game of survival.
The disastrous cycle of events begins with William's extreme reaction when he learns that his mother intends to leave the business to her nephew (Philip Jackson). Recognizing at last the community's depravity, the resident priest (a haunting turn from David Bradley) surrenders to the heart of darkness, making it clear that nothing good will come of this situation.
Levring, a Danish commercials director whose feature debut was the English-language Dogme film "The King Is Alive", effectively strips away the romance of the exotic through insistently unpretty DV visuals by cinematographer Jens Schlosser. There's a powerful sense of immersion in the Malaysian locations, the humidity and dank green light all but palpable.
Diving into the baser instincts, McTeer and Maudsley hold nothing back. But the story's dark twists sometimes verge on parody, and with most characters so far past the point of no return, it's difficult to care what becomes of them.
- 6/21/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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