Farewell Darkness
Occasionally I am contacted directly by distributors or filmmakers of tiny films to see if I will review (and thereby publicize) their movie. I try to only say yes to those I know will really watch, and I also try to be as objective as I can; most times I am not worried if Steven Spielberg will read my review and take umbrage. Director Daniel J. Pico sent me a link to the preview of his 3rd film, Farewell Darkness. I was intrigued and excited by the premise, and I enjoyed the footage that I saw. The movie is about a soldier, freshly back from Iraq, who has a score to settle from childhood. It sounded like a promising exploration of PTSD and what wounds war creates but also opens up and how it affects people well beyond the battlefield. So I got the DVD and discovered a somewhat different film than I expected.
Michael (Keith Compton) comes back and his anger intensity is at 9.2 out of 10 the second he gets off the train, and stays that way for all but about 10 minutes of the film, until a surprisingly anti-climactic climax. The time is spent disproportionately reacting to stuff and arguing with his unlikely girlfriend (she: artsy mod; him: Marine) about how he’s acting. So, it could use a trim (it’s only 96 minutes now but it felt much longer) and he could have dialed down the Mad Guy thing a little bit to give us a reason to be on his side, and to have a level to build to. However, his rage and his violence and his weird remote jerkishness has nothing - nothing! - to do with the war. You think it does, assume it does, hope the meager flashbacks would be indicative of something, but no. He was gone, fighting, yes, and now he’s back. Yes, he did see some bad stuff, but his whole intense crazy thing was apparently pre-existing (to be fair, understandably) since childhood. So basically we have here a “who’s the man now” abuse revenge fantasy tarted up to be topical/political.
War offered Michael no outlet nor any perspective; it served no narrative purpose except to have him return pissed (and maybe have people ignore the warning signs of something else, thinking it war-related, but that’s a stretch.). Keith Compton has a lot asked of him in this movie. He’s in over 90% of it and is required by the script and/or the director to make this consuming rage varied and interesting for 96 minutes. After an hour of this rollercoaster, however, the intensity gets exhausting and then tedious. I felt also that the climax cheated the audience of the emotional release we had patiently (or not) trudged all this way to experience. I’ve seen independent films that were as rough, as choppy, but I have also seen an arc built much more smoothly. See it if you love seething.
MPAA Rating Not rated: R for language, sexuality, violence
Release date 8/1/07 (limited)
Time in minutes 96
Director Daniel J. Pico
Studio Pico Blvd Entertainment
