Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Lauren Hadaway
Starring: Isabelle Fuhrman, Amy Forsyth, Dilone, Jonathan
Cherry, Kate Drummond
You might want to perform some stretching exercises before you sit down
to watch writer/director Lauren Hadaway's feature debut
The Novice, as after 94 minutes of watching its anti-heroine push herself to
physical limits you may suffer from second-hand cramp.
Isabelle Fuhrmann plays Alex, a freshman student at a
prestigious college. She's studying Physics, but it's a subject she
seems to struggle with as she's forced to repeat tests multiple times.
She's determined to succeed nevertheless. Alex applies this
determination to an extra-curricular activity, trying out for the
college women's rowing team. It's a sport that Alex seems to know little
about, as though she drew it out of a hat, but from the off she applies
herself to the discipline in a manner that suggests earning a spot in
the top boat has been her lifelong goal.
The Novice is a unique mix of sports movie and
psychological horror, a lesbian Top Gun with moments of
almost Cronenbergian body-horror. Hadaway served as the sound editor on
Damien Chazelle's
Whiplash, and spending weeks examining that movie's details has clearly had a
large influence on her directorial debut. Like Chazelle's movie,
The Novice features a determined protagonist who focusses
so much on their goal that they exclude everything and everyone else
from their lives, lest they prove a distraction. Of course, both drummer
and rower are essentially cogs in a greater machine, which make the
narcissism of the respective protagonists counter-productive. For Alex,
other people are simply obstacles to be out-paced, even her own
teammates.
Visually, The Novice shares a similar aesthetic to
Whiplash, reducing a venerable learning institution to a shadowy, dimly lit
facility. The staccato editing of Whiplash is also
employed, though not always successfully here. Hadaway takes a leaf from
Michael Powell's book, shooting the racing scenes not in the convention
of a sports movie but rather maintaining sole focus on Alex's mental and
physical exertions, similar to how Powell staged the dance numbers in
The Red Shoes. This seems jarring at first until we understand that Alex isn't so
much concerned in beating her opponents as in beating herself. Elsewhere
however we get musical montages that veer a little too close to Lucozade
commercials, and some of the visual tics trigger flashbacks to the
irritating mannerisms of '90s Oliver Stone.
There's something refreshing about Hadaway's ambiguity regarding her
protagonist. It's left to the viewer to decide whether Alex if the
movie's hero or villain, whether we should cheer on her relentlessness
or worry about her mental state. While she seems like she'd be hard work
at the dinner table, I will say this for Alex – at a time when everyone
expects a medal for participating, it's thrilling to watch someone push
themselves to their limits.
The same might be said about the young actress portraying Alex.
Fuhrmann loses herself in this role as much as Alex loses herself in
rowing. She's been around for well over a decade now, but has struggled
to find good roles after her breakout in 2009's Orphan. Like Alex, Fuhrmann seizes this opportunity at a rare lead role with
both hands until her palms bleed, exerting herself to a degree that's physically tiring for
the viewer but never less than compelling. Based on her performance
here, Fuhrmann has certainly earned a seat on the big boat.
