Appetite
George Milton'sAppetiteis a sad Euro-pudding art-house psychological drama set in a somber Isle of Man hotel, a reserved, restrained British version of the Eagle's "Hotel California" by way ofThe Shining's Overlook. It's a timeless place stuck outside of the social world where the lost and lonely wander and wallow in their own regrets. Chanteuse Ute Lemper is an aging beauty and the hotel's resident matron ("I came here to kill myself, but I never managed to finish my suicide note," she jokes grimly), Trevor Eve is the proprietor in love with Lemper but paralyzed by the memories of his dead wife, and Yse Tran is a grown orphan glumly plotting her own suicide while awaiting the arrival of her estranged mother. Into this melancholy mix blows angry, aggressive British sailor Christien Anholt, who shakes the somber mood with a game of dare that sends Tran into the "haunted" room 207 and sets to work on the vulnerabilities of the other wounded souls. This film is not a horror movie or a ghost story, despite the misleading promotion, but a dreamy little drama of regret, revenge, and quiet frustration. Handsomely shot and directed with a moodiness so thick you could carve it, the oddly captivating tale never quite finds its balance and threatens to drift off in any number of directions (as one guest plays with a handgun in his room, the score evokes the music fromTaxi Driver), but finally drifts into a lovely denouement that is sad, hopeful, and satisfying.--Sean Axmaker