Never
call a Shetlander English, they are likely to take exception. However, some
would be even less thrilled to be called Scotts. They consider the Faroe
Islanders their closest cousins and aspire to a similarly quasi-independent
status. They definitely do things differently on the Islands. American surgeon
Tora Hamilton learns that the hard way in Peter A. Dowling’s Sacrifice (trailer here), which opens today in New York at the IFC Center.
After
her untimely miscarriage in New York, Hamilton agrees to relocate to the
Shetlands, her husband Duncan Guthrie’s ancestral home. On paper, there are
plenty of advantages. He will have plenty of petroleum-related work and the
local hospital will be delighted to have surgeon of her caliber. There is also a
large, unflaggingly immaculate orphanage that is chocked full of infants ready
to be adopted. That is indeed the plan for Hamilton and Guthrie, once they are
past the one-year cross-the-t’s-and-dot-the-i’s waiting period.
Just
when Hamilton starts to feel comfortable, a peat-bog preserved corpse is
unearthed from their property. The police assure her the anonymous body most
likely dates back centuries, but Hamilton notices physical traits similar to a
young wife and mother who supposedly died of cancer a year or so ago. Everybody
tries to pooh-pooh her concerns, but the body’s injuries sure look like a
ritualistic killing to her. Forced to conduct her own investigation, Hamilton
starts to suspect the murder was the work of a not-so ancient pagan cult
operating uncomfortably close to home.
Evidently,
some of the islands are covered with scattered rune fragments (rune ruins),
making the Shetlands a highly suggestive setting for supernatural skullduggery.
The problem is Dowling’s narrative is much more a conventional Brit mystery
than a horror film, which rather figures, considering it is based on a novel by
Mary Higgins Clark Award winner, Sharon Bolton. The trappings are strange and
sinister, but the surprises are few and far between.
Still,
it is rather worth the price of admission to see Downton Abbey’s David Robb (Dr. Richard “It’s Eclampsia You Idiot”
Clarkson) in such a radically different context. He chews the scenery with
great gusto as Hamilton’s shadowy father-in-law, Richard Gutherie. Likewise,
Rupert Graves is slippery enough to maintain Gutherie fils’ moral-ethical
ambiguity. Radha Mitchell is a bit vanilla for the lead, but her restraint
serves the film well in a number of key scenes. She also develops a fast
screen-rapport with Joanne Crawford’s Sgt. Dana Tulloch perhaps the only honest
copper on the archipelago and certainly the only pregnant one.
