(Canada/USA, 92 min.)
Dir. Ed Gass-Donnelly, Writ. Ed Gass-Donnelly, Colin
Frizzell
Starring: Abbie Cornish, Diego Klattenhoff, Dermot Mulroney,
Lola Flanery, Justin Long
 |
| Abbie Cornish and Diego Klattenhoff star in Lavender. Courtesy Pacific Northwest Pictures |
Let the birds sing, dilly, dilly, And the lambs playWe shall be safe, dilly, dilly, out of harm's way
Writer/director Ed Gass-Donnelly returns with another tale
of small town murder songs in Lavender.
The lullaby that haunts this film is the nursery rhyme “Lavender’s Blue.” It
might be a childhood staple, but these rhyming lines of “dilly dilly” have long
roots in horror that help add an extra chill to Lavender. Whether they appear in operatic adaptations of The Turn of the Screw, repeat themselves
in Brad Fraser’s play Unidentified Human
Remains and the Nature of True Love, or are sung consolingly in the latest
take on Cinderella, this kiddy ballad
isn’t exactly soothing. It’s downright eerie, especially when used as a
haunting refrain.
The verses of “Lavender’s Blue” echo throughout Lavender as Jane (Abbie Cornish) sleepwalks through traumatic memories of her childhood. The song evokes soothing reminders of her sister and parents, but it turns into a hypnotic chant as Jane recalls images of the brutal murder that left her family dead and put her at the centre of an unresolved mystery.
The past comes back to terrify Jane when a freak car
accident unscrambles her brain and loosens dormant memories. She starts seeing
things. Gifts appear. News of an inherited house—a place she doesn’t even
remember but to which she feels a pull whenever she passes a golden field—brings
her home and puts her back at the scene of the crime. This homecoming reunites
her with an estranged uncle (Dermot Mulroney, creepy in a small role) and forces
her to confront the ghosts of her past (literally) to ensure that she doesn’t
lose another family.
This situation puts Jane’s husband Alan (Diego Klattenhoff)
and daughter Alice (Lola Flanery) in peril, but Lavender is most successful at delivering intense horror when it
turns its attention to the ghosts that chill Jane to her core. A memorable
shot, say, of Abbie Cornish staring vacantly at all painting, all shaken and
perplexed in direct, pleading eye contact with the camera, is far more
startling than the few pop out surprises or obligatory music cues are. The film
is an unnerving character study about the trauma with which survivors of abuse
experience day by day and the demons they encounter when unsuspected encounters
trigger old wounds. Lavender’s
recurrent use of the children’s song is especially disquieting in its constant
reminder that the worst perpetrators of abuse against the young are often some
of their closest guardians and most trusted elders.
Lavender sometimes
struggles with its icy pacing as shards of Jane’s discombobulated memory repeat
and return. The repetitive bent to the film is more of a tease than an agent of
suspense. The film is admittedly slow, and confidently so, but the strong final
act redeems it.
Gass-Donnelly and cinematographer Bendan Steacy use a cool
lens to create a tense, foreboding atmosphere. The stark use of colour is
frequently striking as vibrant red balloons and ribbony gifts pop out of the
frame like alien intruders as Jane slips in and out of subjective experience. Lavender creates some otherworldly
images through that use colour to infuse the gothic tension dots of childlike
wonder.
Abbie Cornish is extremely good as she navigates the web of
Jane’s fragmented memories and trips outside present reality. Subdued and
shaken, Cornish uses the survivor’s anxiety and confusion to her advantage as
she invests the audience in Jane’s search for answers. The innocent inquisitiveness
that gently pushes her to explore her past, moreover, makes the experience
extra unnerving as Jane goes back to the root of her horror and slowly,
painfully, relives the gruesome event with fearful hesitation. Lavender dillydallies, but the glacial
pace can be downright chilling.
Lavender opens in Ottawa
(South Keys), Vancouver (The Park), Calgary (Eau Claire), Halifax (Park Lane),
and Toronto (Yonge/Dundas, with Ed Gass-Donnelly and select cast at the Friday
7:00 PM screening).
