Director/writer: Simon Horrocks
Cast: Tim Scott-Walker, Oliver Browne, Jannica Olin, Cristiana Dell’Anna and Kristina Erdely
Rated: Not rated (violence, nudity)
Official movie site/trailer | IMDb
Its not often movies will make my head spin, but Simon Horrocks’ Third Contact is one such case. This psychologically-driven film follows David (Tim Scott-Walker), a psychotherapist who’s seemingly feeling more like his patients lately with bouts of depression and a sense hopelessness. He contemplates ending things himself until he has an encounter with Erika (Jannica Olin), the sister of a former patient who has recently died. Suddenly the mysteriousness surrounding the patient’s death gives David reason to stick around, at least for the time being.
As David digs deeper into the apparent suicide of his patient, strange and mysterious things start to happen. It’s not long before I began to realize the film was going to be a psychological puzzle of sorts. When another patient of David’s dies, again by apparent suicide which eerily resemble the prior case, things really get heavy. Is there some sort of cult behind this? Some kind of conspiracy? David desperately wants to find out, likely for the sake of rescuing his own dignity and reputation if nothing else.
During his investigation, David tracks down a contact of one of his deceased patients. This is where the bizarre factor really gets turned up a notch in the movie. After the encounter, David wakes up in a small room. Someone is outside the door, but this detail seems insignificant. He looks out the window, seeing what appears to be himself walking down the street with a woman. Is he somehow in another dimension? Is it time travel? As each strange event takes place, the more the questions build up.
I admit that I may have lost track of many of the occurrences that took place and likely misplaced their sequence in retrospect, but that fact goes to illustrate the complexity that begins to unfold in the story. I watched the second half of the film twice, and even in the second viewing I can’t say with confidence I have a great understanding of the film. This is certainly not a complaint. I love a film that challenges the viewer, asks many questions, and leaves a lot to be interpreted and this film does just that.
The film reminded me a little bit of Aronofski’s Pi. Aside from the black and white filming style, both films follow troubled lead characters who get entwined in cryptic and mind-bending situations. I really appreciate original films like this (despite causing a bit of mental frustration at times!). The characters were elusive and the narration was poetic and just as mysterious at times. The conversations were surprisingly interesting as well, especially those between David and patient Karl (Oliver Browne). I found myself wanting to know what “destinations” were just like David. By the end of the film, I still had many questions but I wanted more.
This is one of those films I’ll need, and want, to watch on more occasions just to see what new details I may have missed before. Writer/director Simon Horrocks did a great job combining both the style and substance with this one. The look and pace of the film fit the source material, so much that I felt closer to the main character. While the film certainly is more psychologically-driven, and this one especially requires a lot of attention, it was quite stimulating. The ending had me saying “what the…” and had me coming up with my theories. Third Contact may leave you with more questions than answers, but that shouldn’t be a bad thing especially in today’s cinematic climate.
What caught my attention with The Liability was the fact that it stars Tim Roth, who is in my opinion one of the most underrated actors. I’m not as familiar with the rest of the primarily UK-based cast, aside from actress Kierston Wareing, of the incredible Fish Tank (2009). Upon reading the plot, I was intrigued about this film even more: a young man named Adam (Jack O’Connell) joins aging hitman Roy (Roth) after Adam wrecks his stepfather’s car and is forced to repay him by running errands. Adam is enthralled by Roy’s profession, while Roy on the other hand is less expressive about his feelings or anything else for that matter at the start. The trip the two take winds up affecting them in more ways than they knew. The performances by the two leads is excellent, as is their chemistry. The cinematography was reminiscent of Drive at moments, with nice choice of music mixed with stylish imagery. This is the type of hit man flick that I enjoy – it’s not so much heavy on the violence and action, but focuses more on the characters, their inner conflicts and circles around an interesting story that is fairly original for the genre. One thing I couldn’t help but was that the film ended a bit abrupt with a few things that didn’t quite add up. With a story like the one it had, I felt like it could have carried on more and I would have loved to see more. To top that off, Kierston Wareing is unjustly underused here. Those things aside, it’s refreshing to see a hit man movie, or even a crime movie in general, doing something different.
