~review by Marie Robinson
Shame on me for getting my hopes up for a movie. Since I heard about
Lord of Tears about a year ago I’ve been dying to see it. Well, I
finally did and… let’s just say this is going to be a pretty rough
review.
James Findlay (Euan Douglas) is a soft-spoken and
somewhat awkward teacher who has just received word of his mother’s
death. She has passed on to him his childhood home, which he had little
recollection of, only the memory of a terrifying half-man, half-owl
figure that haunted his dreams. He informs his friend, Allen (Jamie
Scott Gordon), that he intends to go live there and unearth what he can
about his mysterious childhood.
The first thing James finds at
the house is a beautiful young American woman named Eve (Alexandra
Hulme), whose inexplicable presence goes unquestioned by the smitten
protagonist. They quickly become inseparable, and while James’ days are
filled with laughter, picnics, and stripteases (not a joke); his nights
are plagued by alarming dreams riddled with prophecies and warnings of
ill fate from the infamous Owl Man.
As I previously stated, when I
heard about the film I was sold. The imagery of the Owl Man is
unsettling and inspiring for sleepless nights. He is voiced by David
Schofield, who completes the creature with a delicious tone of an
insidious ancient. While the being is chillingly beautiful, he doesn’t
do a whole lot other than stand there, and let’s be honest, standing
ominously in the distance loses it’s potency after a while.
Lord
of Tears, directed by Lawrie Brewster, gives an attempt at avant-garde
that I feel was missed. The soundtrack is scattered and inconsistent,
sometimes playing jarringly loud over dialogue. A scene that sticks out
to me in particular is where Eve is doing one of her painful burlesque
dances with a modern electronica song playing over it; not only does it
not fit the scene, it does not fit the movie at all, where the rest of
the soundtrack is minimalist piano.
While we are on the subject
of Eve I want to take a moment to tell you that I hate her. Which is bad
because that was absolutely not the intention of the writer and
director. Hulme’s attempts at being quirky and charming are WAY over the
top, unrealistic, ill timed, and annoying. I was also completely
perplexed as to why James was not concerned that there was a random
woman living at his deceased mother’s estate. The only time he questions
it, with the appropriate phrasing, “So, what exactly do you do here?”
He is met with the snobbish answer, “Please, don’t ruin it.” And then he
just stupidly nods his head.
The dream sequences are completely
random and muddled about the plot, not making sense until the very end.
While there is a pay-off with them, I do feel they could have been
placed differently in a way that isn’t so obnoxious and confusing. The
filming is amateur and the whole film is pulsing with nauseating
melodrama.
I know I really ripped this film a new one, but other
sites such as Bloody Disgusting and Dread Central have given it really
good reviews. So maybe I’m an asshole and missed out on something
brilliant.
Even better than the movie were the promos, which
include the Owl Man chatting with folks on Chat Roulette :
...and the creature
appearing at a popular urban exploring location and scaring the piss out
of people. The filmmakers have good ideas, I just didn’t feel they were
executed to their potential (or, perhaps, just to my liking) in the
film.
