Product: Triangle (2009)
Rating: 5.0
A Very Nice Release
This comment contains some spoilers.If you like Melissa George then 2009's "Triangle" is a must see. She is on screen for about 90% of this 99-minute psychological horror feature. By far her most challenging role to date; she gets a lot of tight close-ups, a number of action sequences, and a character that is all over the map emotionally (must have been exhausting). The entire feature is told from her character's point-of-view (POV); and she does a good job of getting viewers to identify with her character.Basically the story is weird mix of "Ghost Ship" (2002); "The Butterfly Effect" (2004), and "Groundhog Day" (1993); with a little bit of Julianne Moore's "Freedomland" (2006) thrown in for good measure. Even the POV twist was done recently in the minimalist Spanish film "Timecrimes"; although here it is more central to the plot.But what makes the cobbled together mix of other movie elements special is more than the way they are mixed together or its intriguing POV twist. It is the introduction of Greek mythology as the story's primary thematic element. Specifically it is a retelling of the myth of Sisyphus, a man the gods had condemned to a hell of ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, at which time it would roll back to the bottom. The Gods had it in for Sisyphus who had been able to cheat death for a period through a deception. They thought with some justification that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. There has been a long debate about whether it would have been better or worse for Sisyphus to know in advance that the rock was simply going to roll back down each time. Most jobs require a worker to spend their career at the same tasks, a fate just as absurd, but only tragic when they become conscious of the fact. Many believe that Sisyphus surmounts his fate by scorning it. The concept has been extensively examined by existential thinkers.Jess, George's character, is busy processing her fate during each cycle but just as she is almost fully clued in she goes to sleep and loses all but a vague sense of déjà vu about her surroundings.My "speculative" read on the story is that the process started when she killed her autistic son in a moment of frustration. Regretting her act she made a bargain with death (symbolized by the sea gulls that appear at various times in the film). She will give up her life in exchange for being allowed to go back to the moment of her son's murder and prevent it. But after preventing the murder she tries to renege on the agreement, driving away with her son. Death then subjects her to a punishment in the tradition of Sisyphus.This is a relatively low budget film ($12 Million) in which almost all the budget makes in onto the screen. There is excellent production design throughout the film and just enough special effects to complement the storyline without calling attention to themselves. Likewise there is enough gore to meet the genre's quota but not so much that it distracts from the basic story.It is all about point-of-view and a good example for film students of the power this device can bring to a film if used effectively. Even if the story is not your "cup of tea", the film is worthwhile viewing just to expand your understanding of how to read films.Finally, there is a subtle but pervasive homage to Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" (1980). Not just the #237 on Jess's house and on the liner's stateroom door (this was the number of the haunted room in the Overlook Hotel) but the whole tone of the production; where the main set is actually more creepy because it is not dilapidated.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.