If You Want to Laugh and Be Scared, You're Next

I wasn’t a fan of 2012’s Cabin in the Woods, though the target audience was most definitely the same as Adam Wingard’s latest You’re Next, a slasher-comedy that is as smart as it is cheesy.  There’s a good chance both will be appreciated by people who love to laugh and be scared by self-aware filmmakers who know how to simultaneously manipulate those emotions.  Unfortunately, my own very specific subjectivity prevented me from reveling in Cabin’s chills and mirth.  I couldn’t buy into the outlandish, if not inventive and imaginative conceptual premise, which relied heavily on advanced technology to cartoonish degrees.  Nextis more old school with its storytelling, leaning on old tropes and whatever else is lying around the rural mansion providing the setting.

The movie doesn’t take itself seriously at all, but, in lieu of its lack of import, offers an efficient tale of 1) People trapped in a house located in some country home with no one around, 2) A killer(s) starts picking them off, and 3) The survivors have to figure out a way to live.  I was a bit skeptical and weary after the opening scene.  It has become common practice in the horror-comedy genre for the introduction to be a mini-movie, if you will, to wet its audience’s appetite.  Rather short, bewildering, and ultimately underwhelming, the script presses on and quickly gains its footing after we meet all of the characters who are family members and their partners coming together for a reunion of sorts (it doesn’t really matter; I mean, of the four grown siblings, none of them have kids).  But, really, for all intents and purposes, they’ve joined each other for a night of death; they just don’t know it yet. 

The characters are thinly drawn and the performances often laughable (for all the right reasons).  At one point, a woman in deep anguish, spilling tears, screams, “We’re all going to die.”  It’s not like this line hasn’t been uttered before in a very similar context, but Wingard managed to make this moment, like others (telling someone to go to the basement, even though it sounds like a horrible idea), feel fresh and new.  There are a few satisfying twists, as well as a bit of gore, but most commendable is the overall pacing--incredibly tempered with ample payoffs.  Wingard squeezes out delightful moments like a scene involving the characters shielding themselves with chairs as they pass a window for fear of being shot.  Like the animal mask(s) the killer(s) wear and their methods of dispatching their victims, it’s too much, but also the right amount of outrageousness.

It’s a bit lazy to compare this to The Conjuring, a recent haunted house box-office hit and quite admirable addition to the horror genre.  While both provide thrills and scares, they’re easy to commend for different reasons.  James Wan’s film was a more earnest and ambitious exercise that cultivated a mood and empathy.  It still had its more over-the-top moments, which were excusable, as a little laughter doesn’t hurt to cut the anxiety.  And when a director respects their audience, it’s very easy to be more forgiving for such seeming shortcomings. 

Next, on the other hand, reaches for new levels of ridiculousness with each subsequent scene, but part of the fun is watching just how far it can push itself with how little it has to work with other than its own moxie, which manifests itself in the movie’s heroine Erin (Sharni Vinson), an Australian raised on a survivalist compound (!), of all places.  The script tries to balance its slightly sexist moments (a camera objectifies a woman sleeking across a floor of broken glass in a manner not extended to any of the male characters, as well as another female character wearing nothing but panties and an open shirt), as any smart 21^st-horror movie does these days by giving us the underestimated female protagonist.  Erin’s antics and perseverance are often exhilarating to watch.  I don’t ever recall seeing two horror films I found so thoroughly entertaining in the same year. 

The cast also includes Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color), who helps contribute one of the film’s most hilarious moments; horror wunderkind Ti West; and a nuanced performance from Joe Swanberg. 

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Film Review: Bert Stern: Original Madman

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the screening of Bert Stern: Original Madman thanks to Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere.  Director Shannah Laumeister was there to introduce the film, as well as hold an impromptu Q&A afterwards.  Her documentary took six years to make, spending two of those years with musicians Jeff Eden Fair and Starr Parodi on the score.  I had never heard of Stern (yet was unknowingly familiar with his far-reaching work), so the biographical documentary was quite educational (for one, we learn that females were originally banned from liquor ads).  Stern is a retired photographer and art director responsible for some of the most iconic imagery of the 1960s, as well as subsequent troves of memorable photos from the ensuing decades, and a jazz film featuring Louis Armstrong, among other greats.  An innovator and visionary, Laumeister's introduction flashes us a hefty taste of his work, part of which pushed pop culture forward (he was behind the famous picture of Sue Lyons sucking on a lollipop with matching heart-shaped sunglasses for Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita), before delving into the details of his life both professionally and personally.  After commerce had appropriated his artistic sensibilities and he found success in advertising, he covered every female celebrity imaginable (including Marilyn Monroe in her enduring final session before her death), propelled by a fascination and love of the feminine form and personality.  We also get candid insights into his tempestuous relationships from both him and his past loves, as well as his legal woes and issues with drugs.  He’s depicted as a man not unlike Mad Men's Don Draper going after what he wanted, never questioning his decisions, and always needing more.  Photography for him was an addiction, where he wasn’t so concerned with the final product, but the relationship and space between him and his subject in that moment.  Life and age ultimately caught up with Stern.  Laumeister, who modeled for Stern in her youth before engaging in a intimate relationship, has a softness in her technique, while being both probing and eliciting a sense of humor from her cast of characters. Despite expressing mild regret, Stern is a man ultimately content with his choices, having made a living utilizing his talents to the fullest, leaving behind an astounding legacy of photographs.  This documentary offers a diverse, but succinct impression for audiences to enjoy.  

Bert Stern: Original Madman opens today at the Nuart Theatre.

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An Evening with Svatý Václav

The Society of Arts & Sciences Los Angeles and Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Westwood hosted a screening of Svatý Václav (Saint Wenceslas) earlier this week to commemorate Czech Statehood Day (today, September 28, in recognition of Svatý Václav’s assassination).  The country has been celebrating the holiday since 2000.  The silent film was produced in 1930 to lasso together the Czech people and cultivate a sense of national pride.  The production had a huge budget of two to four million koruna via state grant, with Jan S. Kolár directing, starring Zdeněk Štěpánek (who birthed two actor sons).  The Czech film industry was in the big leagues in the late 1920/early 1930s and one can see the quality of the film holds up to anything American produced at that time and is reported to be the largest production brought to the screen anywhere at that point.  Unfortunately, it missed its original release date and studios postponed its premiere a year later in 1930.  By then, talkies had taken over and mainstream audiences were largely disinterested.  However, the film would become important a few years later when Hitler came to power and the country needed to unite as a whole to the rising fascist. 

Michael presented the film on Wednesday evening and shared a nice little introduction to prepare the audience.  Saint Wenceslas (who inspired the Christmas standard “Good King Wenceslas”), whom I share a first name with, is considered the patron saint of the Czechs and carries the additional title of Duke of Bohemia.  The print we saw appeared to have a remastered soundtrack with pristine quality. 

I’ll be the first to admit that my attention span doesn’t allow for movies made before the late 1960s, especially silent movies, unless I really make an effort to try.  Even then, it’s easy for me to get lost.  I remained engrossed in the historical document, never-the-less.  While touching on historical facts, director Kolár engages in myth-making, as the task dictated. The advent of Christianity indoctrinating pagan Bohemian farmers plays as a prologue to Václav’s life from birth to death during the tenth century (he died in his late 20s).  He’s treated as the second-coming in a story filled with love subplots, an epic war, and some political intrigue.  A series of battle scenes involving invading tribes climaxes with pacifist Wenceslas brokering peace.  The negotiation leads to a huge gluttonous feast for the royalty, ending with an elderly blind man playing a harp while regaling the company with a foreshadowing tale of family tragedy.  Consequently, his jealous brother, Boleslav the Cruel, hungry for power, plots the death of his sibling and backstabs him a la Julius Cesar.  After the Duke is assassinated for not being a warmonger, a huge wind whips through the kingdom as a final word before the film finishes. 

The acting is sometimes melodramatic, other times surprisingly authentic.  There are some well choreographed scenes involving thousands of extras and horses.  The title cards aren't frequent and it's challenging for the viewing-impaired to suss out all of the main identities and allegiances, especially without an informed religious context.  While it was easy for me to lose my attention not quite being able to follow who was who and what was happening in every moment, the general gist was there and it was fascinating to watch life in the 900s for the elite in their log cabin and stone castles with animal skins hanging from the doorways.  

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Movie Spoiler SPIDER-MAN 2 (after capsule review)

Spider-Man 2: Movie Spoiler Summary (after capsule review).  A solid companion piece to the initial installment (though, if I was forced to Sophie’s Choice it, I would choose the 2002 movie), Spider-Man 2 almost matched its reviews and box-office receipts.  Many said it was the better film, perhaps The Best Superhero Film Ever Made (which would be retracted by most everyone after the The Dark Knight).  Opinions have cooled since then, but, for a sequel, Alvin Sargent's (who would write the next one, as well as the latest) screenplay continues in the spirit of the original and expands the ideas it first presented.  The villain Doc Ock (the superbly cast Alfred Molina) here isn't such a bad guy, only destroyed by personal loss and the desire to create something the world has never seen before.  The fear here is technology taking over humanity through people’s own unexamined volitions, where one's self-determination is handed over to a force of its own creation.  Doc Ock's intentions are good and true, but they cloud his judgment and provide Peter Parker's (Tobey Maguire) main obstacle, as he wrestles with the challenge of trying to have a normal life, while trying to serve a city who needs him.  The editing is efficient and the tone never goes for an awkward bravado, though Ock could have stood to have a few of his own memorable lines.  Spidey is a lit bit more cartoonish this time (which is strange, because if memory serves, I thought the opposite, having only originally seen the trailers years ago), but its effect is kind of negligible at this point (maybe I don't care anymore).    

[Image vis Cloud Architecture Design]

Maguire Illustrated

Movie Spoiler Summary
The opening credits are a smart homage to the original, incorporating the web motif in a different manner with illustrated stills from memorable moments from the first film.  It sometimes evokes a neoplasticism.  My only gripe is that it didn’t include the scene of Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and Peter (Tobey Maguire) in his car, as that is where the famous line, "With great power comes great responsibility,"(though the film proper eventually revisits that scene) is first delivered.  Like the first film, Peter starts the movie narrating while the camera backs away from a billboard of MJ (Kirsten Dunst) who works as a model and actress.  Parker is employed as a pizza delivery person and has an impossibly short period of time for his next job.  He changes into his Spider-Man costume, but fails to make his destination on time.  Emily Deschanel plays the receptionist who tells him that she’s not going to pay him, as he's late; she would go on shortly to star in the TV show Bones.  The pizza restaurant fires him.  

Raimi is kind enough to give us a brief, gratuitous glimpse at Maguire

At the Daily Bugle, Peter is barely hanging onto his status as freelance photographer.  On campus where Peter is a student, he runs into Dr. Curt Connors (Dylan Baker) who expresses concern over his slouching performance.  At Aunt May’s (Rosemary Harris), MJ and Henry (James Franco) surprise Peter with a birthday celebration.  Henry and Peter talk about OsCorp’s work with Dr. Otto Octavius (Alred Molina).  Henry still curses Spider-Man for his father's death.  Aunt May is getting foreclosed on and Peter still feels guilty for Uncle Ben’s death.  Outside the house, Peter wants to kiss MJ, but he can’t.  On his way up to his crappy apartment, the landlord Mr. Ditkovoch (Elya Baskin) gives Peter a difficult time about the rent.  At OsCorp, Peter meets Dr. Otto Octavius who introduces him to a new invention.  

Queer As Folk's Hal Sparks

Peter decides to take a break from Spider-Man to watch MJ perform in The Importance of Being Earnest.  However, he gets caught in a high-speed chase and decides the streets of New York need him more than MJ does.  Peter arrives late to the theatre and the usher won't seat him.  While waiting outside after the play, he witnesses her meeting John Jameson (Daniel Gillies), current boyfriend.  While slinging webs, Parker loses some of his abiltities.  In an elevator, he runs into Hal Sparks.  Peter tries to explain his absence to MJ over the phone.  

One of the better super villains

At OsCorp, Dr. Octavius demonstrates his new invention—a tennacled contraption that locks right into his spinal cord and sends signals to his brain.  During a successful “fusion reaction,” while trying to harness the power of the sun, things go terribly wrong.  Peter changes into Spider-Man and tries to pull the plug, but Dr. Octavius stops him.  As a result, his wife Rosalie dies and OsCorp is destroyed.  During an operation, doctors try to remove the tentacles, but Dr. Octavius or “Doc Ock” as the Daily Bugle will call him, comes back to life to attack them all in a brilliant scene that could only come from the visual eye of Sam Raimi.  Peter gets a photo assignment to cover Jameson’s (J.K. Simmons) son, an astronaut.  Doc Ock visits the old lab site, now guided by voices in his head attributable to his four new appendages, deciding to rebuild.  Peter accompanies Aunt May to the bank, where the loan officer Mr. Jacks (Joel McHale) turns her down.  Doc Ock arrives and breaks into the vault.  When Spider-Man tries to stop him, he kidnaps Aunt May and begins climbing up the bank building.  After a high-rise scuffle which involves Aunt May dropping to her death a couple of times, Spider-Man returns her to safety.  

Vintage Raimi

At the party, Peter takes pictures while Harry drinks himself silly.  Christine Estabrook (the Broadway actress memorably played Martha Huber from Desperate Housewives, as well as Joan's mother on Mad Men; as well, she attended the Yale School of Drama with classmates such as Meryl Streep, Christopher Durang, and Wendy Wasserstein, among others) does a pleasant drop playing Jameson’s wife.  Peter tries to win MJ over with poetry, as she is there with John, but fails, as he has already asked for her hand in marriage.  Then, Harry lays into Peter about his loyalty to Spider-Man.  While slinging around as the masked crusader, Peter loses his abilities again.  And the press still paints him out to be a bad guy.  Doc Ock continues to tool away on his master plan.  Peter shares his emotional dilemma with his doctor and then dreams about Uncle Ben.  He decides to throw away his superhero costume and put Spider-Man behind him.  He returns back to a normal life as Peter, in a montage set to BJ Thomas’ “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.”  Peter hopes to win MJ back, but she tells him it’s too late.  Spider-Man’s costume is delivered to the Daily Bugle, much to the pleasure of Jameson.  Peter witnesses a mugging, but is powerless.  He visits Uncle Ben’s grave with Aunt May.  At home, Peter admits to her what happened the night Uncle Ben died.  She doesn’t take the news very well.  

Peter can't escape MJ

Doc Ock repairs the fusion reactor and then pays Harry a visit in search of more Tridium to fuel it.  The only way Harry will agree to giving him some is if Doc Ock brings him Spider-Man.  Crime and mayhem continue to go up.  Michael Edward Thomas (who was also in the first film) shows he knows how to scream and gets Peter’s attention, who rescues a kid from a burning building.  Mr. Ditkovich’s daughter Ursula (Mageina Tovah) pays Peter a visit, who gives him a note from Aunt May.  She’s moving out of the house and tells Peter that she loves him and thanks him for telling her the truth.  In not so many words, Aunt May encourages Peter to return to being Spider-Man.  At their apartment, MJ tries to recreate “that kiss” with John.  It looks hot, but something’s not right for MJ.  She sits down with Peter to talk about being together, but, his priorities have changed yet again, and they can’t have a meeting of the minds.  She asks him to kiss her when they’re interrupted by a chaotic visit from Doc Ock starting with a car smashing through a window almost killing them.  He tells Peter to have Spider-Man meet him and grabs MJ as collateral.  

Sometimes a hero needs a lift

Unconscious moshing

When he learns that Spider-Man is back in action, Jameson is none too pleased.  The web-slinger and Doc Ock engage in an alteration which takes place mostly on a moving train (is it not called a subway when it’s moving out in the open? … do you stop calling something a bird when it lands on the ground?).  Peter stops the train from careening off an unfinished upper portion of the tracks.  After he passes out, he wakes up to realize that everyone on the train has learned his identity.  A boy hands him his mask promising him his secret is safe in a teary moment that is in stark contrast to today’s need to know everything about everybody.  Doc Ock overpowers Spider-Man and returns to Harry with his body, taking off with the Tridium.  Peter’s best friend pulls out a dagger and rips Spider-Man’s mask off, waking him up inquiring about MJ’s whereabouts.  While Harry is wrapped up in his father's death (get over it already!), Peter informs him, “There are bigger things happening here than me and you.”  

Spider-Man shows up at Doc Ock’s and begins to pummel him.  He takes his mask off in order to convince him to shut down the reactor.  “Sometimes, to do what’s right, we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most, even our dreams.”   Doc Ock takes his words to heart and overpowers the grip the tentacles have on him to drown the reactor in the river, committing suicide in the process.  MJ sees Peter as Spider-Man for the first time and he confesses his love for her.  Doc Ock goes down with the reactor reminiscent of Alien3.  

The angle on Franco's torso is just perfect here

After saving her life, Peter informs MJ that they can never be together.  Back at the Osborn penthouse, harry gets a visit from his dead father Norman (William Dafoe) as his reflection in the tall mirror from the first installment.  When Norman demands he avenge his death, Harry throws the dagger into the mirror, sending shards of glass everywhere.  Behind the broken mirror,  he inadvertently discovers the secret lab of his father which housed everything Green Goblin.  At the church, MJ stands up John at the altar and shows up at Peter’s.  “Isn’t it about time, somebody saved your life?” she asks.  It’s implied that the two will be together and Spidey goes slinging through the city amongst various helicopters on his way to stop more crime. 

My favorite shot in the film

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Movie Spoiler PERFECT SENSE (after capsule review)

Perfect Sense: Movie Spoiler Summary (after capsule review).  The very dystopic concept of Perfect Sense is ultimately a lesson in learning to appreciate the senses we have and how easily it is for us as a human race to accept certain changes we have no control over and submit to them as a new normal.  We as human beings rely so much on our senses, that without, we lose the ability to relate to each other and build healthy relationships.  It puts up several obstacles in Susan (Eva Green) and Michaels’ (Ewan McGregor) relationship.  And there is some wonderfully maudlin music, but the all-encompassing reach of the director gives the film a forced and generic feel.  It doesn't help either that some of the scenes are just ridiculously stupid and/or gross.  But, maybe that's the point.  Desperation ain't pretty.  However, the film just seemed like one big excuse to get Green and McGregor naked for half the film.  If there is one thing this film taught me is that Green is a force to be reckoned with.  While she doesn’t do anything especially extraordinarily, she undeniably holds the screen with her presence.  And, I hadn’t realized that she has actually taken on several projects, albeit some low-quality, where her character drives the story.  Mixed with her higher-budget affairs (I haven’t seen her career-defining performance in the Casino Royale remake), me thinks that Green will soon figure into the Oscar game in a few years.  Just.  A.  Hunch.  

[Image via ChiTownFlix]

Movie Spoiler Summary 

Katy Engels narrates [Thank you to anonymous for the correction] this story about epidemiologist Susan (Eva Green, in all her black mascara and eye-liner glory) in Perfect Sense, starting with a scene on a boardwalk with her spitting from a bridge.  She gets introspective and talks about all the different things in the world, while footage plays illustrating her monologue.  Ewan McGregor as Michael wakes up to the nude Green and softly kicks her out of bed.  He claims he can’t sleep with another person under the covers.  At the beach, Susan walks with her sister (or mother) and throws stones at seagulls.  In a cool shot, Michael rides his boat and then wheels out some contents, while melancholy music plays.  He meets with a guy, who shares a cigarette and mumbles something, perhaps about the brand of tobacco.  A colleague Steven Montgomery (Stephen Dillane) bumps into Susan at a parking garage.  They walk into a hospital and a woman grabs their attention as she has a loved one who is suffering from a strange affliction.

Steven and Susan enter a control room to interview the man, quarantined behind a glass partition.  He’s forward and disgruntled.  Steven explains to Susan this strange phenomenon that has occurred in the last twenty-four hours.  At the restaurant where Michael works as a chef, a coworker gives him a hard time about his treatment of Susan.  There’s a lot of camera cutting and busyness, because, you know, it’s a restaurant and all.  At her home, Susan makes a crappy microwave meal for herself, smokes, and talks on the phone.  Outside downstairs, Michael asks for a cigarette and a light.  She obliges, but plays hard to get.  At work, she brainstorms with colleagues about the sudden disease that has erupted and what might its origins be.  A montage of people in a display of forced and pathetic sulking gets underway as the plague begins to take its toll.  Susan explains that Severe Olfactory System (SOS) results in losing one’s sense of smell and, eventually, every human succumbs to it.  

We hear the voice of Barack Obama and other figures manipulated to make it seem like they’re talking about this epidemic.  Michael rides his bike around Glasgow.  There is a great deal of emptiness.  The restaurant is slow.  James (McGregor’s old Trainspotting costar Ewen Bremner—you know the one who had the scene with the bed-sheets) breaks out the laughing gas and has a little fun.  They all leave.  Susan arrives home where Michael is standing outside his work.  She addresses him as “sailor” and then goes on to explain the origins.  He invites her in: “People aren’t eating in restaurants these days and we’ve got a lot of spare food.”   She sits on the counter and wolfs down his cuisine and then starts to break down over the thought of her father.  He hands her a tissue letting her know that it’s clean, before she engages in some more laughable crying.  He takes her home across the street through the rain.  They end up in bed together, but he still has his tank top on, so that doesn’t mean anything.  But, then, I’m sorry, this is ridiculous, he starts crying too.  This is the point of the film where it officially becomes a parody of itself and/or a skit on SNL.  The next morning, Michael wakes up to find Susan at her kitchen table.  “It’s gone, the smell, all gone.”  She serves him some coffee.  He references their “crazy evening,” lights up a fag, and leaves. 

Ewan pre-Trainspotting

At the lab, Susan and Steven examine cages upon cages of rabbits and discuss Michael.  The restaurant regroups and prepares to cook for a clientele who have lost the of smell, along with them.  Susan narrates another one of her montages full of photographs, including one of McGregor from his youth, “The food becomes sweeter, saltier, more sweet, more sour, you get used to it.”  Michael carries on a conversation with Susan while he rides his bike around the alley below her apartment.  They take a stroll and watch a spoken-word street performer who plays the violin.  They go back to her apartment and have some adult fun.  He tells her how he can’t sleep in bed with another person, and she ultimately kicks him out of hers.  He gives her his business card and rides his bike to a cemetery where he meets the parents of a former relationship.  The mother chides him for forgetting flowers for “her.”  Susan walks with her sister. 

James talks about fruit-flavored oxygen with Michael before Susan goes into yet another one of her narrated montages discussing religious idolatry and UFOs.  At the lab, Stephen begins to have a reaction and Susan helps administer a sedative.  In the parking garage, a blonde assists Susan who begins to have trouble breathing.  Likewise, at the restaurant, Michael is on the floor going a little bit mad.  Rather comically, Susan begins eating flower pedals and everyone at the restaurant devours all the food before them in grotesque fashion, complete with sound effects.  It’s one big mass festival of consuming anything chewable or drinkable around them, including a jug of olive oil.  “This is how the sense of taste disappears from our world,” Susan explains.  Michael and Susan end up in bed together.  They make love some more, seeing how Michael can’t sleep in bed with another person there, so he needs to pass the time somehow.  That, and he’s with Eva Green.  Duh. 

Shaving cream for dessert with a bonus bar of soap 

The more optimistic Michael has a discussion with a colleague about their low customer turnout.  Susan chimes in again with a narrated montage and explains, “Slowly, things returned to normal and life goes on.”  The mood improves at the restaurant.  Susan shaves Michael in the bathtub and they begin to consume the shaving cream.  Dried off, they dance and exchange secrets.  They share a laugh about their shortcomings as people and Susan labels them, “Mr. and Mrs. Asshole,” before they go out to a club. 

Susan and her colleagues converse with a scientist via a monitor.  He starts to panic and the world then experiences Severe Hearing Loss Syndrome (SHLS), complete with narrated montage care of Susan.  Michael and Susan are back in bed and he takes a Polaroid of the two of them.  There’s business at the hospital between Steven and Susan.  Officials shut down the restaurant, including one guy with a hair across his ass, and are given orders as to how they can proceed.  Kicked out of her apartment, wearing surgical masks, Susan and Michael drive to his place.  He starts to wig out and tells her, “You’re just a pair of ears and a mouth, an asshole and a cunt.”    He keeps repeating “Fat and fucking flour” while damaging his apartment.  Naturally, she high-tales the Hell out of there.  On the streets, she listens to the cries of people while Michael loses his ability to hear after his tirade.  He’s approached by men in quarantine outfits and forced back into his apartment.  Michael tries to call Susan while she’s busy going mad at the hospital.  He watches his television inform deaf people to stay at home.  The rabbits run rampant at the hospital with their monkey friend when Susan wakes up deaf herself.  At this point, I imagine that the last twenty minutes will not have any audio, which is a God-send, but I fear that won’t stop an unnarrated montage from happening, as life settles into the soundless frontier.  But, as it turns out, there is narration.  Drats.  This is the part of the movie, where, like movies with subtitles, you have to watch and can’t just get by listening to.

She really is gorgeous

Michael visits the restaurant where he frightens one of his coworkers.  Susan now lives with her sister and they communicate via tablet and pen, as does everyone else who doesn’t know sign language.  Predictably, business returns to normal.  Michael frequents a club to try to feel some music.  And we get another narrated montage from Susan.  People smarten up and start practicing what it’s like to be blind (you know it's coming).  Susan enjoys her nieces and nephews.  Michael tries to locate Susan, but she’s busy with her narration about the Ice Age and warns that blindness is next (Not to be confused with the awful Fernando Meirelles film), naturally.  The montage becomes much more optimistic and shows people enjoying each other’s company.  Susan and Michael reunite and we get to see how pretty Green is, before they both lose their sight.  “It’s dark now, but they feel each other’s breath … oblivious to the world around them.”  

Check Out These Other Spoiler Summary/Reviews:

Eden Lake

A Lonely Place to Die

Perfect Sense

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