I haven’t written anything for this site in quite some time and for the last few weeks I’ve been racking my brains for an idea for a weekly feature and I think I’ve got it.
You see, I’ve given myself this mission to see more movies that either a) I necessarily wouldn’t see or b) have no idea what they are. Then it clicked, there is already a service that allows me access to a catalogue of 100’s of movies so I started up a little game using Sky Player through my Xbox.
That game is simple, I close my eyes and randomly move up and down the catalogue until I feel the need to stop, and when I do, the film I land on is the film I must write about… simple, easy, effective.
So the first film chosen for TFL #1:
Surveillance (2008)
IMDB Rating: 6.4
Rotten Tomatoes: 54%
First things first, when I read the little blurb on Sky Player for this film I was shocked to find that it was directed by Jennifer Lynch, David Lynch’s daughter. I had no idea that Lynch’s daughter had followed in her father footsteps to become a filmmaker. As a huge Lynch fan myself, my intrigue grew as I was eager to see what his daughter could offer.
The film revolves around the aftermath of a horrific incident which only leaves a young girl, a drug addict and a police officer alive. Two FBI agents show up at the Police Station to investigate the event and try to find the truth about what actually happened. They interrogate the individuals and try and solve the crime, the survivors recount their actions running up to the incident which are told in flashback, nothing really out of the ordinary there. No men in bunny suits, reverse speaking midgets or even a medical mask? Is this actually Lynch’s daughter? Oh wait… but there is Bill Pullman!
The film is a murder mystery on a whole, so the film basically hangs on the ‘Who done it?’ It’s simple; all you need to do is make that the main theme running through your story. So my question is why does so much of the movie get spent with the characters before the actual crime? The first 50 minutes or so is basically a prologue to the actual incident.  Who cares about what they did before, we want to know who they are now and how this whole situation has affected them. It really is sloppy storytelling on the writer’s part, because none of this back story has anything do with who the killers are.
There are sparks of talent in the film though, mostly with the framing of shots and how Lynch moved her camera. Especially in the main section of the film where we re-live the incident starting off with two police officers harassing a family on holiday and a couple of drug addicts for speeding. They pull them over and abuse and embarrass them. I felt that Lynch understood the use of space, keeping everything up tight and close to the action. It’s obvious that she’s trying to create a feeling for the audience as if they are involved in this disturbing act and it works for the most part, aesthetically anyhow because the dialogue is not good, to be honest it’s not great throughout the movie but it’s evident in this scene most of all. The fact that this event is supposed to unease and disturb the audience is rendered useless because the dialogue is so clunky and comical at times.
To be honest in a film that is very dialogue heavy and spends a lot of time with the character in close quarters, they were surprisingly dull. A film like this you live and die by both character and cast and neither felt right, in both story and casting. This along with a weak script is the major floor for me.
For the first few minutes of movie when we get introduced to the FBI agents played by Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond, I couldn’t help feel like the character portrayed by Pullman felt different that what seemed to be on screen. In essence it felt that Pullman was playing the character completely different that that what was on the page. Either it be him being miscast or Lynch’s direction I couldn’t shake that feeling for most the movie.
Overall, for a film described as visceral and disturbing I expected a bit more, for the most part it was pretty tame to some other films that have had those adjectives attached to it. I guess it’s a classic story of it could have been so much more. Actually, in my opinion I think the film would have worked better as a 30 minute short, it would have been quick, fast paced and exciting which the feature film wasn’t.
Lynch’s direction and camera usage was a high point though and hopefully we have seen a glimmer of better things to come from the daughter of the king of weird.
