Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: HATCHING [Sundance Film Festival 2022 - Virtual]
The aspect of connection but also perception is an ongoing theme in cinema but is definitely a continual motif seen in this year's Sundance offerings. This might be in a way because of the pandemic fueling a certain type of storytelling but also because of the global social media blitz we live in. "Hatching" [Midnight] is more of a focal point on expectation but also denial in a way. Without giving away too much of the plot, the story follows a girl in a family in Finland. where she feels pushed to the side or not as important. Her mom, her dad and her brother are too wrapped up in themselves to give the emotional support per se she needs. While the concept structure is fairly straightforward, the delivery, especially in the reading of a crow and the meaning of its existence, is nicely done. The horror aspect of it is efficiently executed and works because it is simply the nature of the beast per se.
Siiri Solalinna plays the girl Tinja in a way of understanding but reacts as most children might not realizing the consequences of said actions which may have seemed right at the time. Sophia Heikkilä as the mother creates a different dynamic which is the inherent motivation and fire starter of the movie. The character makes the wrong choices but sees it as a right which ends up playing into her fate. "Hatching" more filters itself as a fable while still living in the real world. The aspect of body horror is not really the thing but more of body transmorphia which is ironically reflected in gymnastics and the focus to win. The realization is that in this story it comes down the family. But even in the end everyone is still trapped in their own world and ready to just go on despite what has just happened. The isolation of the initial shots painted to maybe a different parallel but actually the use of practical special effects in the initial scenes of plot progression really give a sense of the real because it is more about understanding when other people might not. B-
By Tim Wassberg
