From time to time, newspaper articles have been adapted into feature films, like
the Oscar winning On the Waterfront, based on Malcolm Johnson’s series
on corruption within the New Jersey longshoremen unions, published in The
New York Sun. Often such source material is culled from major metro papers
that have national distribution. However, The Manchester Union Leader now
shares that distinction, having published Tye Gagne’s article, a real-life
outdoors rescue story chronicled in Malgorzata Szumowska’s Infinite Storm,
which opens Friday in theaters.
For
her minimal fictionalized backstory, Pam Bales wants to hike the trail around
Mount Washington on the anniversary of a personal tragedy, so she sets out despite
the stormy weather expected later that day. Bales is a volunteer member of the
rescue patrol, who is quite familiar with the mountain. She knows how to
properly equip herself and she is not suicidal. However, none of that seems to
be the case for the solitary hiker she spies from a distance. Judging from his
tracks, he is wearing tennis shoes. When she finally catches up with him, she
finds the lightly dressed stranger on the verge of hypothermia.
Since
the non-communicative man is in a state of shock, Bales decides to call him “John.”
Relying on her training, she tries to guide him down the mountain, but he is
not always cooperative. All the while, the weather grows increasingly harsh.
Infinite
Storm is
a pretty straight forward and competent survival-against-the-elements
adventure. Naomi Watts is totally realistic and grounded as Bales, but she
never has little time or opportunity to develop her character. That is even
more the case for Billy Howle playing “John.” Instead, Szumowska’s film is almost
entirely focused on the business of survival. That gives it an immediacy and an
honesty, but most viewers will not form a long-term emotional connection to it.
Zhenia might be a superhero, or maybe a super-villain. He might have gained his
powers through radiation, like Spiderman, but his point of contact was Pripyat
(Chernobyl). His super-abilities are in his hands, but his intentions are not
always clear. With ambiguous powers come ambiguous responsibilities in
Malgorzata Szumowska’s Never Gonna Snow Again (“co-directed” by cinematographer-co-writer
Michal Englert), which opens today in New York.
Sort
of like Django dragging his coffin, Zhenia blew into town carrying his massage
table over his shoulder. Thanks to his powers of mesmerism, the mysterious masseuse
had no trouble with immigration. The next time we see him, Zhenia has built up
a large client list in a gated community outside Warsaw. He seems to hold many
of his clients in a seductive sway, especially the women (like a clean-cut
version of Nick Nolte in Down and Out in Beverly Hills). Yet, he never
takes advantage of them whenever puts them under via hypnotic suggestion. Instead,
he might practice his ballet in their spacious McMansions.
NGSA
is
a strange film that generally feels like an art-house genre film, but it is
tricky to define in what ways. Regardless, it is far and away Szumowska’s best
film, head and shoulders superior to the dreary The Other Lamb or Elles.
There are periodic expressionistic
excursions into Zhenia’s subconscious that start to try viewer patience, but
Szumowska actually makes them payoff with a haunting climax.
Alec
Utgoff’s weird lead performance well suits the film. He is like a human Rorschach.
He gives so little, yet somehow invites those around him to infer and project
so much. Weronika Rosati is also quite extraordinary, in a tightly-wound, yet
understated way, as Wika, the wife of Zhenia’s cancer-stricken performance.
