Review by
Sue Finn
Directed by: Antaine Furlong
Starring: Charlotte Best, Susan Prior, Jonny Pasvolsky, Alex Menglet, Andrew
Jack
She wakes from her beach dream, bound and gagged, and we watch her
struggle to free herself, before she realises it’s futile, and instead
just stands and waits for an explanation about her predicament. This is
Aria (Charlotte Best), and we are as in the dark about her
circumstances as she is.
It seems she’s in an elevator in some sort of high-rise building, and the
rapid descent that we watch her experience appears particularly designed
to injure.
Luckily for Aria, it’s quite a luxurious elevator, and she has plenty of
space to move around in. No urine-scented tin can for this girl!
It looks like the building has been abandoned - hazard tape and
door-space-covering garbage bags flap in the breeze; red lights flicker on
and off as she works to find an escape from the elevator car. She finds
her own phone and listens to a message that seems to indicate that her
family have been killed and she has been kidnapped.
Through various protracted flashbacks we learn that younger Aria and her
missing sister Zara, had some sort of connection to nature that gave them
special powers when they were children.
She speaks to a mysterious person called Uncle Jack on her phone, finds
out her family were in the witness protection program, and that her father
works for the CIA, before she is interrupted by big screen projections
that show her father (Jonny Pasvolsky) being tortured as she
looks on.
The torture grows ever more grim as he holds out on answering his
interrogators, the big man in power (Andrew Jack) deciding to
remove parts of her father‘s body as we watch.
It turns out that the torturers want to locate someone whom Aria’s father
helped to hide, and they are willing to do anything to find this person.
The film from this point comprises of Aria’s flashbacks that flesh out the
story and take us from that elevator car, escalating and prolonged torture
scenes, and Aria’s search for escape.
As written and directed by Antaine Furlong, this is another film
that is overlong; filling itself with a convoluted plot and not much of
interest to look at for large sections. With its one location and
innumerous flashbacks that at times just add more confusion (at least
until the ending makes things clearer), this feels messy. The acting is
very good and certainly elevates the material with lead Best, who does
most of the heavy lifting, certainly not holding anything back and proving
most impressive. Also notable are Pasvolsky, Jack as the Russian heavy and
Tahlia Sturzaker as young Aria - all give strong performances.
Unfortunately, even though this is an Australian production, they decided
to make the characters American and so the actors are saddled with phony
American accents. I’m assuming this is designed to help the film appeal to
American audiences, but they never sound anything but fake. Not to mention
that the way the children talk during the flashbacks is ridiculously over
the top, the words they say far too mature to ever come from a child.
The torture scenes are explicit and unpleasant so that watching them
becomes an exercise in endurance, and after a while even they lose their
impact due to over-saturation.
The special effects are very good, and the direction by Furlong shows a
nice sense of style; it’s the script and its lack of clarity or a
discernible arc that are the problem.
In the end, it seems that they are heading for a sequel, and I think that
actually wouldn’t be a bad idea. If they can learn from the mistakes of
the first film, and give the sequel a chance to breathe, expand beyond the
walls of that elevator car and concentrate on the relationship between the
sisters, it could actually be a good film; one that I would watch,
particularly with the production values that are on display in this movie.
The concepts and ideas explored here could have led to an interesting and
quite beautiful film, I see flashes of it in some scenes, and in between
the torture it does have a sweet earnestness and heart – things that are
sorely lacking in many films these days; but on the whole it’s
disappointing in its missed opportunities.
Rising Wolf is on VOD now.
