Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Hanna Västinsalo
Starring: Krista Kosonen, Riitta Havukainen, Emma Kilpimaa, Leo Sjöman, Antti
Virmavirta, Kaisu Mäkelä
While our bodies age in linear fashion, the same isn't always true of our
brains. Some people remain immature throughout their lives while others feel
like a pensioner trapped in a young person's body. Some are terrified of
aging while others embrace it. Through a sci-fi concept, Finnish
writer/director Hanna Marjo Västinsalo examines what it means to
age.
The film is set in a near future where a form of gene therapy allows people
to de-age. A pair of octogenarians - Juhani and Tellu - have opted for the
treatment, but for different reasons. Juhani's wife is dying and has asked
him to de-age so he can be around for their daughter and grandson. Tellu
simply wants to be young again.
The pair are coupled together as roommates in the clinic while they undergo
their treatment, which occurs in stages. At first we see them regress a
decade or so, which is achieved through simple makeup effects. Feeling 70
rather than 80, Juhani finds his intelligence returning and embraces being
able to watch and understand the sci-fi shows he once loved before his mind
became muddled. Tellu rediscovers sexual feelings, purchasing a vibrator to
enjoy the return of such physical sensations and enjoying a knee-trembler
with a hospital porter. She develops a crush on Juhani, but he appears
disinterested.
At the point at which Juhani and Tellu now resemble thirtysomethings (and
played by actors of that generation), their priorities begin to further
diverge. Losing his wife and seeing his daughter's disgusted reaction to him
looking like her younger brother rather than her father, Juhani regrets the
treatment and asks about having it reversed, which he's told is impossible.
While Juhani halts his treatment, Tellu continues, becoming a 20-year-old
and expressing a desire to regress even further. Juhani wants to put his now
young mind to work and enrolls in college, while Tellu throws herself into
the pleasures of occupying a youthful body, having sex with various
strangers while still harbouring feelings for Juhani, who becomes
increasingly uncomfortable with the growing age-gap between the pair.
Palimpsest certainly has an interesting premise but it never
quite figures out what it's trying to say. It could be read as a trans
allegory in Tellu's continuing search for a body she's comfortable with and
Juhani's daughter's unwillingness to accept her father's new form, but if
this is the intention it's rather thinly explored. Some of the film's ideas
have been covered in previous films. The early scenes of Tellu throwing
herself into sex and other physical activities while still appearing like an
elderly woman recall Ron Howard's Cocoon. The later awkward relationship between the ostensibly thirtysomething
Juhani and the increasingly youthful Tellu is an inferior cousin of the
central idea of William Dieterle's Portrait of Jennie.
Still, there's an undeniable charm to Västinsalo's film in the
relationship between Juhani and Tellu, and the various actors that inhabit
their roles do a fine job of convincing us that we're always watching the
same two characters regardless of how young they might appear. But there's
also a sadness in how it explicitly portrays how men are still largely
judged by their maturity and women by their youthfulness.
Palimpsest screens at Raindance
2023 on October 29th.
