Product: Triangle (2009)
Rating: 3.0
Not a Movie to Watch if You've Just Got Home Exhausted From Work, As it's a Complicated Plot, Full of Clues& Cultural References
Unless someone's told you what Triangle is about you're probably going to insert it into your DVD player, sit back and expect it to be a brainless slasher flick at sea, ghost ship flick, supernatural beings messing with or, well some sort of fun demise viewing of a group of attractive young adults movie. Possibly even a Dead Calm type scenario since they're on a yacht after all. It is sort of some of those things but it's a lot more complicated a plot than one you can enjoy if you are tired and just want something simple to sit back on the couch to watch before calling it a night. It's best to actually stop reading here if you haven't seen it yet, not knowing anything about this film will help you enjoy it the most, but if you're still undecided whether to give it a go, I'll tell you how it starts in the next paragraph.The confusion starts right at the beginning of this one, the words on the screen tell us it is funded by the UK lotteries, yet the scenery and houses and buildings are clearly Australian, including electrical sockets, yet for some reason the vehicles on screen are those only found in North America and they are driving in the right hand lane, which is incorrect for the UK or Australia. Also these British actors are talking with fake American accents. Is this all deliberate though? This bizarre scenario is only the tip of the iceberg once the movie gets going and the yacht hits a storm that is obviously more supernatural in origin than anything that should be possible to be encountered. Things don't look good survival wise until an old passenger ship appears which seems deserted, but the group know they saw someone on board from their upturned yacht. Why has no one come to meet them? Where is everyone? What's with that message in blood on a mirror?I won't mention anything else about the plot but you've got to be paying attention the whole time to understand (or come close to it, as fully doing so is probably not possible), no getting up to make something to eat and coming back minutes later, no going to the bathroom, if you do you'll miss little cultural references such as to the Shining, you'll miss clues such as the name of the ship being important to what is happening. Even if you are paying attention, you'll still probably miss a lot of it or it will go over your head unless you are some sort of scholar of non famous to many, European mythology, it did mine. That's why I only rate this film three stars, even though yes it is being clever, but you shouldn't finish watching a film and have to say huh? What the f was that about? Maybe if I go back and, hey look at the name of the ship, let's Google that and see what results we get. Ohhh, so that's what that scene about. Cultural references should be to things the majority of viewers would know, if they aren't then they need to be introduced or explained in the film by the characters or something like this before the parodying begins.I had to come on here and read other people's reviews to know stuff such as (and going over these gives away more spoilers) that Aeolus is a Greek ruler of the winds. Therefore it is assumed by some people you should instantly know from the ship's name, that the timeline repetition for the main character is obviously referring to another Greek myth about someone called Sisyphus who was condemned to roll a boulder up a hill yet it would always roll back down so he would have to keep doing it over and over again.I think knowing how the film ends, and knowing the cultural references that this would be a more enjoyable movie to appreciate as a second viewing than was possible the first time round. However it's just not that entertaining a film to want to see it a second time round. That's coming from someone who lives on the Gold Coast where this thing was filmed and have the hey there's the Southport Yacht Club and various other landmarks to point out to myself while watching it.