Monday, December 12, 2011

392) Sleeping Sickness (2011)

391) Sleeping Sickness (2011) Dir: Ulrich Kohler Not Yet Released Date Seen: September 30, 2011 Rating: 3.5/5

I rather liked the "Col. Kurtz has overstayed his welcome in Africa, even after he's become an institution and a force of good unto himself" aspect to this story. But only when it's literally imagined. When Kohler gets into abstractions and tries to create metaphors, he really starts to look like an amateur that happens to have latched onto a galvanic and compelling story. The hippo stuff, the hunt in the woods, the driving sequences which seem loaded with meaning (specifically, how passable the road the characters are driving on and what they see is dependent on where they are in their personal journeys): these are weak. But the characters are rich and compelling enough and their world is, too. Which I guess is why I don't like the film when it strives for greater meaning. Feet on the ground, good. Head in the clouds, nope.

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