Alice learns from the land agent that she has a good chance of having her tenancy accepted if she can repair the neglect incurred by her father and brother. Writer/director Clio Barnard clearly developed the character of Alice (Ruth Wilson) with the best of intentions. Feeling guilty, Joe attacks Alice's car in a drunken rage, trying to light it on fire. The film is loosely based on Rose Tremain's novel Trespass. And, while the subject matter of trauma may always be relevant and important, it reminded me of one of my favorite Roger Ebert quotes: “It’s not what a movie is about, it’s how it is about it.” The “what” may be powerful here but the “how” is most certainly not. We are rewarded with sophisticated direction from one of the greatest (if not the greatest) living British filmmakers. Her efforts to repair the land are met with resistance by Joe, who feels that she will upset the delicate ecosystem of the farm. When her brother returns he is initially angry at her for showing up after their father is dead and after an absence of 15 years. [2] [3] [4] The film is loosely based on Rose Tremain's novel Trespass. Joe, ashamed, confesses to being bought out. [5] It screened in the Platform section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United Kingdom on 23 February 2018.[6]. Joe is approached by one of the land owners of the farm who secretly reveals that the farms are no longer profitable and that tenants who agree to be bought out will receive a cash lump sum of £100,000. Knowing that Alice would refuse a buyout, the man suggests to Joe that if he were awarded the tenancy he could evict Alice and keep the money. Begrudgingly they begin to work together, though Joe continues to chaff at Alice's way of doing things. To be blunt, “Dark River” is a movie that’s constantly reminding you it’s a movie. Alice learns from the land agent that she has a good chance of having her tenancy accepted if she can repair the neglect incurred by her father and brother. Joe asks her why she would sometimes go to their father's room and she reveals that waiting for him to rape her was the worst part. She settles herself there, but refuses to sleep in the main house as it triggers flashbacks. Alice Bell (Ruth Wilson) works as a sheep shearer on a farm where she gets along well with her fellow coworkers. TIFF Review: ‘Dark River’ is a Hollow Exploration of the Aftermath of Abuse The Film Stage September 17, 2017 Trauma, or more specifically the aftermath of trauma, has always been a rich topic to explore in cinema, and it’s easy to see why. While Joe is away she fumigates the house and has a flashback remembering her father reacting in a jealous rage after Joe told him that Alice had a boyfriend. In the middle of their argument a loose dog attacks and eats one of their sheep. Clio Barnard's Dark River starts shooting, Clio Barnard’s ‘Dark River’ Movie: Sean Bean & Mark Stanley In Talks To Join, Ruth Wilson And Clio Barnard On ‘Dark River’, Sheep Shearing And Difficult Memories – Toronto Studio, 'The Death Of Stalin' to open Toronto Film Festival Platform programme. In fact, there’s almost no plot to speak of, and the film becomes a prime example of why writers need to write story first and not theme or even character. Why Alice goes from never wanting to come near her family again to fighting to save the farm simply isn’t clear, and that leaves a black hole in the center of “Dark River.” We need to believe that Alice would return home and fight to overcome her trauma instead of just that she’s there in service of a movie plot. She settles herself there, but refuses to sleep in the main house as it triggers flashbacks. Encouraged by the financiers to make the story her own, Barnard changed the location of the film to Yorkshire, and instead focused on a woman who returns to the home she fled 15 years earlier in order to claim the tenancy of her father's farm, who then becomes involved in a dispute with her brother. In the middle of their argument a loose dog attacks and eats one of their sheep. However he gradually warms to her, only to anger again when he discovers that Alice has applied to take over the tenancy of the farm. When Alice initially returns to the farm her brother, Joe, is absent. Alice discovers Joe preparing to sell all the sheep and tries to get him to stop. When Alice wakes up the two discuss her sexual abuse at the hands of their father for the first time. Nevertheless, he is awarded the tenancy. When she returns, Alice encounters her deeply troubled brother Joe (Mark Stanley), who is not at all excited to see his estranged sibling. Nevertheless, he is awarded the tenancy. Dark River is a 2017 British drama film written and directed by Clio Barnard, and starring Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley, and Sean Bean. While Alice is wracked with guilt and has a breakdown beside the body, Joe decides to turn himself in, claiming that he committed the murder. Joe is put on probation and returns. [2][3][4] The film is loosely based on Rose Tremain's novel Trespass. Although Dark River is partly inspired by Rose Tremain’s 2010 novel Trespass, and takes its title from a line from a Ted Hughes poem about grief and memory, it may owe as much to science as to art: Barnard interviewed forensic psychologists and consulted material in the Wellcome Trust archives to research the depiction of a trauma survivor haunted by her own past. Originally Barnard intended the film to be a straightforward adaptation of the novel, which was set in southern France and involved two sets of elderly siblings involved in a property dispute. Joe is put on probation and returns. There’s a character here, and Wilson does her best to sketch in the emotional trauma of her background, but everything in “Dark River” feels like it’s designed not with real people in mind but with Serious Independent Cinema in mind. Gorgeously photographed by the Brazilian cinematographer Adriano Goldman, “Dark River” is a raw ballad of doom and damage. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 52 reviews, and an average rating of 6.4/10. She then asks him why he never tried to stop their father to which he has no answer. Brian Tallerico is the Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. Alice returns to her family farm, 15 years after leaving home. Sometime later Alice visits Joe in prison where she brings him a piece of a plant he had mentioned to her earlier. Dark River is a 2017 British drama film written and directed by Clio Barnard, and starring Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley, and Sean Bean. [5] It screened in the Platform section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United Kingdom on 23 February 2018.[6]. Dark River is a tense two-hander that builds tension to the breaking point. And then she stopped. Encouraged by the financiers to make the story her own, Barnard changed the location of the film to Yorkshire, and instead focused on a woman who returns to the home she fled 15 years earlier in order to claim the tenancy of her father's farm, who then becomes involved in a dispute with her brother. When her father dies she quits her job as her father had told her that she would inherit his tenancy when he died. [8], "Clio Barnard's Dark River starts shooting", "Clio Barnard's 'Dark River' Movie: Sean Bean & Mark Stanley In Talks To Join", "Ruth Wilson And Clio Barnard On 'Dark River', Sheep Shearing And Difficult Memories – Toronto Studio", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dark_River_(2017_film)&oldid=959136186, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 27 May 2020, at 09:25. Independent cinema is full of films about people overcoming trauma, but the ones that stand out resonate not because they hit the same manipulative beats but because they make us believe in the people at their center. Wilson, such a phenomenal actress on TV in shows like “Luther” and “The Affair,” conveys the crippling paralysis that can come with abuse and trauma, but Barnard leaves everything around her too purposefully vague. “Dark River” is the kind of movie that mistakes rumbling storm clouds and restless sheep for plot development. As she returns to the farm Alice begins to have vivid flashbacks involving her father, including him entering her bedroom, and him holding her in bed. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association. Joe asks her why she would sometimes go to their father's room and she reveals that waiting for him to rape her was the worst part. Alice goes after the dog with a gun, and has a PTSD induced flashback which results in her accidentally shooting and killing their neighbour. Because this river would be running in darkness for hundreds of miles under the ice, the researchers named it "the Dark River," they wrote in a summary of their research. Her efforts to repair the land are met with resistance by Joe, who feels that she will upset the delicate ecosystem of the farm.

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