Movie reviews

THE SILENT TWINS

Recommended. Marjorie Wallace from "The Sunday Times" wrote a book based on the true life of the Gibbons twins. The movie's largely based on that book. Set in Wales, it's a dark story, where both the real part and the imagined animal tales are disturbing. The melody of "Tainted Love" precedes the abuse in the love relationship. They created their own world, set apart from the gloom of where they live but even grimmer. It's even more disturbing when in one of their invented stories a dog wags his tail after realizing he's going to be sacrificed. The four lead actors, impersonating the twins at various stages of life, are compelling. So is the mystery behind their odd behaviour. About the most shocking though is the courtroom scene where their youth antics get them sentenced for Broodmoor and locked up with England's most dangerous mentally ill murderers. That keeps you wondering afterwards: does the movie omit something, did the court have grounds for the sentence for real or did racial prejudices or prejudices against the mentally ill run so deep? It's the turning-point of the plot too: freedom versus the lock-up at Broodmoor are the two extremes. Also the way the courtroom and the hospital are shot gave me the creeps - the places are so cold, inhuman, dark, the austere decor reflects limited emotions of the employees of both institutions. The whole film is evocatively shot which creates sombre atmosphere.

ILUZJA (ILLUSION)

Watchable. A Polish psychological drama. I expected something magical but no, it's just the hope parents cling onto when their daughter is missing - the set-up becomes clear after a while. Still, it's a film where you have to guess things since nothing is direct. At the same time, other than going through a number of possible incidents along such a search, nothing extraordinary happens. The 90 minutes drag. While the mother conducts her own investigation, which offers some moments of suspense, it's interspersed with protracted depictions of her musings. It's quiet, apart from some brief music, e.g. in a club, no sounds suggest to you how to feel or what to expect. The title illusion is her glimmers of the hope of finding her daughter, the viewers' illusion is that it may be more than a typical Polish drama.