“Mother is God in the eyes of a child.”

What better way to start 2007’s reviews than with a revisit of one of my faves from last year? I was honestly surprised that this took my breath away as much on a second viewing as it did on the first. The beginning stuff dragged on a little longer than I remembered, but if I’m honest, if anything, that last half hour hit me even harder this time. The whole thing now seems clear to me to be a metaphor for a difficult separation of husband and wife. Tons of people have gone on about how the ending makes no sense whatsoever but they’re thinking too literally and too complicated. Sure, you can read it as, they’re dead, or whatever, but really, it’s as simple as this: they’re in different worlds. There’s no returning to being together. It happens. And the worst part is, guess what? The memory remains, hence the very similar surroundings in those intercut final moments. I could be wrong, but that makes sense to me, and I felt like I’d share it since there are so many people who see a hole there and rather than trying to fill it with their imaginations just dismiss the movie outright and move on to the next commercial. I adore this movie. The music and art direction at the very least, in my ideal world, would be up for awards this season.

November 1st, 2006:

I couldn’t have guessed how amazing this would be if I’d tried. I’ve never played the “Silent Hill” video games, had never even heard of them till Roger Avary mentioned writing the screenplay for this movie on his blog way back when his site was more than a front page. I love Roger Avary as a director so it disappointed me that he wouldn’t be helming another of his own screenplays, and though I’ve tried to watch Christopher Gans’ Brotherhood of the Wolf, I could never get into it. So I approached this with caution – wanting to love it for Avary, but fully expecting to left out in the cold as a non-gamer etc.

But I immediately latched onto the wonderful music (from the old games, I’m sure, but it was new to me), the seriously chilling atmosphere, and Jodelle Ferland’s winning dual performance as Sharon and Alessa. By the last half hour, the movie had already earned a place on my favourite movies of 2006 list. And that’s when it really takes off. The finale of this movie is just stunning, I can’t believe I haven’t read or heard more about it.

Sure, it gives away its video game roots in places, but all in all, I can finally say I’ll be reasonably happy if this movie is as good as 2006 gets. I expect to be watching this as much in the future as any other of Roger Avary’s movies, and I’ll give Christophe Gans another chance (hey, look at rhyming me!) too.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 1st, 2007 at 5:06 am and is filed under 5 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.