Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: RESURRECTION [Sundance Film Festival 2022 - Virtual]
The idea of trauma and visual representation reflected in the texture of myth on a realistic scale (especially independently) is the kind of sub textual dance that can float or sink a movie. "Resurrection" [Premieres] with all its inherent connotations wears on its ideal oddly with what is real and what is consumed. The idea of Keats and the notion of "Paradise Lost" are not foregone conclusions in this story (yet an absolute. "Resurrection" follows Maggie (an always exceptional Rebecca Hall) seemingly living her life before a man from her past enters in as if he never left. There are many different forms this person could take but one stands out. The reasoning behind everything is necessary and yet is only fully compressive in a way when seen as a whole. The movie does linger. The climax, as bonkers at times as it is, keys into the metaphorical mixed with the literal (which describes the best films that come out of Sundance). David (Tim Roth) is a texture of control and yet he is also a facilitator of change. While some swings move widely in terms of context and the way they land, the path of the journey of the film, its darkness at times and the penance it signals is undeniable without completely going over the edge.
Director Andrew Semans knows that it has to work on a fine point but also give a necessary kicks to jump start it. This comes halfway through the film when Hall tells a story to a hungry younger female intern at her firm. Hall's face is shrouded in black and the camera never moves (behind an imperceptible zoom) unfurling the story that is wrapped in her head, Certain details paint the picture. The only thing that paints to something different at all is in the closing credits which listed a pharmaceutical consultant which might key into a reflection on psychosis but the basis of myth as a metaphorical context for the film still feels more true, especially in the use of dialogue and the "kindnesses" requested. Roth fills this character aptly but knows when to dial it down. His character believes everything but the resurrection per se too will find a return path making the epilogue all the more haunting because the cycle begins anew. A-
By Tim Wassberg
