Review: The Sleepwalker
A portentousness percolates in The Sleepwalker, Norwegian writer-director Mona Fastvold's tale of repression and dysfunction. Initial intrigue, however, ultimately gives way to an elusive, unsatisfying denoument.
Kaia (Gitte Witt) and her boyfriend Andrew (Christopher Abbott) are renovating the house left to Kaia by her deceased father, an architect whose nature will soon be contested by the unexpected arrival of Kaia's semi-estranged half-sister Christine (Stephanie Ellis). A garage fire that resulted in Kaia's disfigurement is the cause of the sisters' fracture though both are willing to take steps to reconciliation.
Kaia is surprised to learn of her wayward sister's pregnancy and engagement to human rights officer Ira (co-screenwriter Brady Corbet), who arrives to collect his fiancée only to find himself coaxed by Christine into staying for the weekend. Christine appears eager for Kaia and Ira to get along though tensions are mounting between all members of the quartet. Andrew is none too pleased about their presence, finding Ira to be condescending and more than a little flirty with the reserved Kaia. Kaia, meanwhile, is put off by Christine bringing up Andrew's past history of violence and questionable pranks. There's also Christine's lifelong habit of sleepwalking which proves particularly disturbing when Kaia awakens in the middle of the night and finds Christine masturbating at the foot of her bed.
The premise is heightened by Zacharyb Galler's often haunting cinematography and especially by Sondre Lerche and Kato Adland's suggestively malificent score. Christine's tendency to blur the line between fact and fiction, coupled with the secluded, wooded location, lend a dark fable feel to the proceedings. For a time, one wonders if this might all be a dream - perhaps all of the characters are figments of either Kaia or Christine's imagination.
As the film progresses, however, there is an increasing sense that the withholding narrative is less a device for sustaining the mystery and more a workaround for the lack of character shading and development. Andrew and Ira are little more than blanks and, while Witt and Ellis deliver solid performances, Kaia and Christine are not necessarily the most interesting of characters to anchor this slowly paced drama. Considering the care taken to convey the set-up, The Sleepwalker turns out to be much ado about nothing.
The Sleepwalker
Directed by: Mona Fastvold
Written by: Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
Starring: Gitte Witt, Christopher Abbott, Stephanie Ellis, Brady Corbet
