Author: kjwuzhere

The Handmaiden is a difficult movie to discuss without ruining the film. It’s one of the films best to watch knowing as little as possible. The trailer is sufficient preparation–it gives you a sense of what the movie is about without actually telling you what the movie is about. I don’t intend to write any spoilers, but if you haven’t seen the movie yet and have any desire or intention to, stop reading right here. Don’t read any other reviews. Don’t watch any scenes on youtube. You can watch the trailer, but that’s it. It’s a good movie. Just go watch it.

Still, even if I lost some (or all) readers there, I am obliged to go on with this review. I will try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible.

The premise of this film is that as part of a conman’s plot to marry a rich orphan and gain her fortune (before declaring her insane and throwing her into an asylum), a thief is planted in the house as the rich orphan’s handmaiden. It is her duty to aid the conman and get her mistress to fall in love with him.

Complications arise.

I won’t go in to anymore plot details, but what I will say is that the film manages, very successfully, to pull you along. Things move at a quick enough pace that viewers don’t have time to wonder what if or maybe or hmmm–they have only the time to comprehend what is before them. We do not have time to ask the questions–let alone figure out what the real questions are. It is not rushed however. Individual scenes are not flashes. Rather, individual scenes are chosen carefully so that while they may be long and sufficient, they also always keep the plot moving just enough.

From a visual angle, the film is often beautiful, and more often disturbing. Sexual sadism rears its head in this film, and while the worst is heard and not seen, the atmosphere is persistently perverse. There is something wrong about this home and the people in it. Though the details and depths of this depravity are not revealed for sometime, the sense that something sinister lurks is present from first sight. That is not to say the atmosphere is gloomy or anything like that–there are many moments of levity and even sensual scenes. The wonder of this film lies in how it is able have us entangled in all its running themes, in both the romance and the dread.

And, of course, the suspense.

The movie will be playing at the Michigan Theater throughout the week. Student tickets are $8.

Moonlight is a beautiful movie. This is indisputable. In terms of color, the movie is full of scenes that are bright and bold without also being oversaturated or unrealistic. They emphasize the color of a moment in a believable way, as if this color wasn’t cultivated, wasn’t deliberately placed before our eyes–instead, it is a kind of color that looks like it belongs in the world. There is, however, a special emphasis on the color blue, with a multitude of scenes throughout the movie highlighted by it.

Beyond color, Moonlight’s visuals also stand out because of the bold cinematography. From the dizzying opening scene that has the camera spinning on an axis and takes viewers in a whirl around the ghetto as two characters carry a conversation, to a later scene where the camera follows one character on his march around the school yard, deliberately concealing the true nature of the scene until it pans back but still building tension, every shot of this movie is clearly, carefully set. A scene is not dictated only by the action and dialogue of the characters but also by the framework–and here, the framework is itself a masterpiece.

Moonlight is divided into three parts, each corresponding to a different name of the main character, and thus a different period in his life. Each thus has distinctive themes and overtones, but the true beauty of the film is how they interweave together to create a story that is connected, almost obvious, yet still persistently, consistently tragic. Viewers watch as the protagonist of the film follows a path thrust upon him by the forces which surround and entangle him. What makes the movie remarkable, however, is how we don’t see it like that exactly. We don’t look at this character as a victim to a collusion of forces and wills; we don’t see him as someone with the odds slated against him (though they are); we see only the life he leads, one singular life, and though in the aftermath it is obvious how his life was destiny, as we watch it, the moments remain individual. There is no will he won’t he in regards to whether he will be able to escape “the life,” but there are little will he won’t he moments, there are questions of words and kisses, of fists and money. Due to this, the tragedy of Moonlight is grand, but not artificial, not needless, not overblown.

The movie is still playing at the Michigan Theater. Student tickets are $8.