By
bouncing short radio waves off the ionosphere, shortwave radio broadcasts
travel long distances and are hard to block. That has made it the perfect
medium for Voice of America, the BBC World Service, Radio Taiwan International,
and the mysterious but very terrestrial “numbers stations.” Someone else might
be using shortwave signals. In fact, they might be something else entirely. For
mysterious reasons, a grieving mother seems to be particularly receptive to
their signal in Ryan Gregory Phillips’ Shortwave (trailer here), which premiered
at the 2016 Dances with Films.
Blame
indie booksellers. During the brief moment Isabel Harris left her daughter
alone for story time in their local bookstore, she vanished without a trace.
Harris has not coped with their loss well, but her husband Josh tries to be
patient. Inconveniently, Isabel’s hospitalization stints have interrupted his
SETI work scanning for alien transmissions. However, soon after the Harrises
move into their new home (for a new start), Josh and his insensitive partner finally
isolate the fateful signal.
Their
company duly throws them a party, but viewers know any celebration will be
premature. That is because we have seen some of the strange visions that are
plaguing Isabel. Even more problematically, she suffers seizure-like symptoms
whenever she tries to leave their new home. Yet, her hope is so strong, she
embraces the dreams and hallucinations, seeking clues to her daughter’s fate
within them. Initially, Josh assumes her erratic behavior is simply another
manifestation of her mentally instability, but eventually he too realizes that
something uncannily strange is afoot.
You
can see some of the best and worst genre filmmaking strategies compete against
each other in Shortwave. On the plus
side, Phillips implies far more than he shows in the first two acts, which
steadily builds the tension and suspense through mystery and uncertainty. He
also thoroughly unnerves viewers with the eerie sound design. Unfortunately,
Phillips seems to periodically lose faith in his material, resorting to gauzy
dream montages that only serve to obscure the narrative clarity. Similarly, the
dodgy nature of Marconi, Josh Harris’s corporate employer with the loaded name makes
little rational sense. Seriously, whether they are idealistically pure or
rotten to the core, it is never clear how they expect to make a profit from his
research.
Although
there is very definitely an outside agency at work, in some ways Shortwave is closely akin to Alex Ross
Perry’s Queen of Earth. As Isabel
Harris, Juanita Ringeling falls apart at the seams quite impressively. Cristobal
Tapia Montt also has some affecting moments as the man trying to keep her
together. Kyle Davis is also entertainingly obnoxious as Josh’s ultra-blunt
partner.
