Product: The Descent (Original Unrated Cut) [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 3.0
Doesn't Go Quite Deep Enough
This movie follows the long-standing convention of having friends talk to each other in flippancies. No one really communicates with anyone else here. This group of women who get together periodically to empower themselves by engaging in some grueling sports challenges - flip off, swear at, and breeze past each other. When confronted with amazing natural phenomena and obstacles, their reaction is also generally not awe and certainly never poetry. It's usually just another curse. Few, if any, meaningful sentences are exchanged.I know our society has grown increasingly rude and raunchy. But when I get together with women friends, we don't talk that way. We still do hunker down and talk more earnestly about politics and the environment - and most of all - about things of the heart. However movie directors seem to think it's more modern and visually arresting to have groups of young "friends" just bash and banter against each other in the most superficial ways.The trouble with following this format, especially in a movie like "Descent," is that we don't get to know or care about any of the characters. I couldn't distinguish one gal-pal from another most of the time. This trouble was compounded by the fact that most of the action takes place in a cave where there is only the dim orange, smudgy, glow from various flares to shed any light at all on the characters.When the movie's menace appears though, there are some genuinely wrenching, suspenseful scenes. If only it was all happening to someone we knew and identified with more.The two DVD director commentaries are generally a waste of time. They are annoying frat house laugh-overs. If you do take the time to listen to one or both of them though, don't do it right after the movie. Let some time elapse, or else you will ruin whatever grim, gripping emotional impact the movie might have had on you.However the "Behind the Scenes" bonus feature is worthwhile. It shows how some of the movie's special effects were painstakingly created, and it shows some of the lively family-like atmosphere that develops among movie cast and crew members. (If only some of that sort of chemistry had gotten translated to the characters on-screen!)The Bonus Material also contains interesting information about alternate endings that were considered for "Descent." In spite of the director's/writer's guffawing, superficial intent throughout much of this film, I think they hit on the right ending after all. The one they went with opens the door to new subtleties of interpretation. And it leaves a poignantly haunting last image. It might make you consider your own last shot, and whose memory you'll have to sustain you through that moment.