On the other side The first full-length work of Agnieszka Vojtovich-Voslo managed to unite a rather famous casting, the duet of Neeson and Ricci looks simply magnificent, rich, both in actions and dialogues, and in the visual presentation of events, and the company is Justin Long, confidently trying to squeeze into what is happening and get to the truth. It seems that the viewer should associate himself with him, since the intricate and multifaceted story rushes from arguments to arguments, sometimes twisting more and more, forcing him to closely monitor what is happening, remembering every detail.
Attention to detail is a key factor, skip a small phrase and you will not understand the effect of the next scene. Observation and full involvement in the plot are important to get maximum enjoyment from watching. And it is not even in the final denouement, for sure someone will guess everything in advance, someone will be shocked and surprised, but the integrity of the narrative requires for a full understanding of what is happening, it is the same focus of the viewer on the details and essential phrases, with which the director conducts all the action from beginning to end.
The film, whose main action takes place literally in one room, combines the plasticity of the visual series with the dynamics of actions and accommodates several days of events in its timekeeping at once, supplementing the scenes of the morgue with sideline storylines, meaningful and important for understanding the characters flashbacks, as well as creepy scenes of dreams and nightmares in which the threads of reality are lost in mysticism, weaving into the action on the screen and confusing more and more.
Liam Neeson, the undertaker who prepares corpses for funerals, who has the gift of talking to the dead, or the maniac who cleanses society of the “dead inside” personalities? Neeson’s brilliant prerfomance with bright and clear confidence in his rightness, with virtuosity of the image and his own charisma, comes to the fore, making up literally the entire basis of the film. Christina Ricci, whose heroine woke up in the morgue and is now torn between accepting herself dead and the desire to live, not understanding where she is - on this or on the other side of reality, and in what reality there is at all, all stages of accepting death as a fact are clearly expressed. In a short screen time, Ricci sets a brilliant example for psychology, diving from one state to another, effectively demonstrating the depth of experience and inner struggle from stage to stage, to complete acceptance of his own fate and submission to the will of rock. At the same time, she regularly appears naked, in which, in addition to the grace and beauty of her delightful figure, you can see a certain symbolism important for screen action.
Symbolism in general is permeated quite strongly, falling from metaphors to images, from images to states of mind, bordering on myth and science, like Trier’s Antichrist, but having a completely different nature at the heart, although still moving towards ideas of the beauty of death, its images, hopelessness and the triumph of eternity. The film does not aim to show the presence or absence of an afterlife, does not try to impose the existence of something on the other side of life, but very famously plays with the facets of consciousness and self-perception, a dynamic picture and expressive play of charismatic actors moving from a twisted thriller to the ideas of psychoanalysis and myths about the human soul.
As mentioned above, the path of the main characters - the duet of Neeson and Ricci, takes place in the form of a staged theatrical performance, the truth in which the viewer is looking for himself, as well as the character of Long. Thus, the search for answers to the questions asked occurs through him. It is worth noting the amazing fact that thirty-year-old Ricci still looks no older than a high school girl, and rather should sit at the desk herself, rather than play a junior teacher, and at the same time, thirty-two-year-old Long similarly does not look older than the boy from “Jeepers Creepers”, which he once visited. Instead of a couple of adults, they look more like a couple of teenagers, complementing each other perfectly. In adult roles, they are still difficult to perceive, but if Ricci throws emotions very colorfully in the frame, naturalistically and deeply presents his character, then Long in the scenes does not realistically overplay his grief, on the contrary, does not reach the emotional peak at which a person should be in a similar situation, or even quite sluggish and confused keeps himself in the frame. But at the same time, it is to his share that the disclosure of the main intrigue and all the secrets of this story falls. While Ricci rushes in contradictions, and Neeson looks for a receiver capable of sharing his beliefs, Long’s hero stubbornly collects all the threads, unravels the tangle and places the necessary points.
Playfully enticing at once with a lot of its elements, this thriller keeps not so much tension as interest, entertains the visual part and very pleased with the twisted plot, in which the search for the truth is not so obvious and simple, although it is not to say that the finale turned out to be directly unpredictable. It turned out to be a very competently staged and submitted movie, where the director’s skillful hand is accompanied by a strong acting presentation of interestingly prescribed images, and all together this creates a rich and atmospheric story, frightening and exciting at the same time, not devoid of beauty and grace, but remaining an exemplary strong thriller literally in all its parameters!
10 IZ 10
Original