Sunday, August 05, 2012

Looking at Ghostly Subplots with The Monitor: A Movie Review

*here be spoilers.

Director/writer: Pål Sletaune.

Cast: Noomi Rapace, Kristoffer Joner, Vetle Qvenild Werring, and Stig R. Amdam.

The Monitor is a Norwegian film that released in the United States July 25th on DVD. In the United Kingdom, this film is called the gentler Babycall. The film itself is a strange tale of a woman recovering from family tragedy. This sums up the central plot. However, there is a strong sub-plot that acts much like a ghost story. Both tales come together through themes of abuse with the film's ending adding some initial confusion.

The story centrally follows Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) as Anna. On the surface, she appears as a single mom protecting her son from an abusive father. She uses a baby monitor to eavesdrop on him. There is something more here, though. Without giving too much away, Anna is suffering from loneliness and something else. She reaches out to a local retail clerk who is dealing with his own issues. Helge (Kristoffer Joner) is losing his mother in a local hospital. He is also seeing visions of a dead child.

The Monitor incorporates one of the stronger sub-plots that this reviewer has seen in some time. Some reviewers have said that Helge's story is a distraction from the film's main story. This is not true. The ending says something else. While both stories are linked through abuse and loneliness, this second story also offers a chilling tale. These last scenes show Helge putting a boy's soul to rest. Helge discovers a shallow grave which is that of a young man murdered by his mother. This interpretation is based on Helge seeing the dead boy near his place of work and by the fact that Helge is practically led to the boy's gravesite by another character. Once the boy is found and put to rest, this subplot ends the film.

Thus, the final scene is simply the resolution of a somewhat subdued ghost story. Ghosts in film and literature often seek out characters when their remains have not been interred properly. The spirit in this story is simply reaching out to Helge so that he can have his life understood and so that he can be buried properly, in a Christian sense. There is more here than just an excellent ghost story, however.

The Monitor is a film that can be rewatched as Norwegian director Pål Sletaune brings together a very capable film. There is a lot to absorb here. The settings are fairly austere. They seem symbolic of the institutions that hound Anna: child services, lawyers and school officials. The music is also creating a sombre tone, which reflects the tragedy of the film's story. This film uses a lot of day shooting and this brightness sways the genre away from horror and towards a psychological drama. There is lots of conflict in Sletaune's feature, as well. The story is unpredictable. Many viewers may wonder what will happen next while some might stop asking questions all together.

The Monitor released on home video formats recently and this is a film that utilizes a couple of different layers. This is not a film solely about physical abuse. There is a small ghost story housed within The Monitor too. The main characters are drawn together because of their loneliness and because of their tragic pasts. Helge seems mostly drawn to Anna's overprotectiveness. Was he overprotected by his own mother? Outside of the relationships, The Monitor is a compelling feature that offers a couple twists late into the feature. The conclusion is perplexing until you realize how important the film's subplot is to the overall narrative.

Overall: 7.75 (polarizing reviews on this title, psychological drama, no real villain to speak of, complex writing, difficult conclusion, tragic overall).

*this is a Norwegian language film.

This review was influenced by another found here at Film Juice (Jonathan McCalmont):

The Monitor Reviewed at Film Juice

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