#8. The Broken [2009]

" Face Your Fears "



UK [88m] Directed by : Sean Ellis Written by : Sean Ellis Music : Guy Farley Cinematography : Angus Hudson Starring : Lena Headey, Richard Jenkins, Asier Newman, Michelle Duncan, Melvil Poupaud

The Broken is a horror/thriller written and directed by Sean Ellis and starring Lena Headey, which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Synopsis
On a typically gloomy day in London, Gina, a young and beautiful radiologist, is sure she just saw herself driving by--in her own car. When she follows her mysterious doppelganger into an unfamiliar apartment, she isn’t quite sure she can trust her own eyes until she spots a photo of herself and her father on the entryway table. Understandably spooked, she dashes back down to her car. Soon she finds herself in the hospital, unable to remember what has put her there or much about the strange woman. What Gina does know is her boyfriend seems different, the ceiling above the bathtub leaks blood in her dreams, and broken mirrors are becoming a recurring theme in her life. Increasingly paranoid, Gina is experiencing a bizarre and horrific version of her former life, and as things spiral out of control, she must escape from, or come to grips with, her new reality.



Cashback, Sean Ellis’ first film, gained the director many fans, many of whom should be more than excited to see his follow-up. Maybe it’s because The Broken is very different in style, maybe it’s because Mirrors has a superficially similar theme or maybe it’s just because this film could be quite difficult to market. While Cashback was quite light, humorous and even poetic in tone, The Broken is simply dark and menacing. Something Ellis’ claims to be closer to his home territory, and who can contradict him after seeing his newest film? Every part of the film is tweaked to inject some sense of real dread into the audience.

So far, this is the best of the “8 Films to Die For” in the 2009 After Dark Horrorfest. Rather than filling the screen with gore, violence, and cannibalism, THE BROKEN works from an intriguing premise to create an enigmatic mystery-thriller with overtones of paranoid horror. Shot in cool colors with slick production values and solid performances, it is consistently engaging until the mystery wears thin for lack of an adequate explanation. Is it supernatural, science fiction, or fantasy - or is it all in the character’s head? Writer-director Sean Ellis is not saying, and much as we admire his courage for going the David Lynch route and leaving it up to the audience, one wishes for a few clues that would at least point us in the right direction. Without these, the film is ultimately unsatisfying, squandering its better qualities with a lackluster ending. In this regards, it parallels the 2007 After Dark Horrofest entry THE DEATHS OF IAN STONE, another British film that was more speculative fiction thriller than horor movie, and which also frittered away its premise on a weak third act. (Which leaves us wondering: Are the Brits the only ones making modestly budgeted genre films that rely more on good ideas than gore? And if so, why can’t they bring those good ideas to a satisfying resolution?)

The story has radiologist Gina McVey (Lena Headey) haunted by her doppleganger - literally, her reflection - after it breaks out of a mirror (off screen). While making a phone call, she sees her double driving away, and then follows her home. Driving away after a confrontation that we do not see, she collides with a cab and ends up in a hospital with only fragmentary memories of what happened earlier that day. As more mirrors break, Gina finds herself growing paranoid, believing that her boyfriend and family are being replaced by duplicates. Eventually, a trail of clues lead her back home to unravel the mystery hiding behind her lost memories…

THE BROKEN plays the gambit that plauges films of this type: in order to “play fair” with the audience and make all the pieces fit together, the “surprise” ending is predictable to anyone paying attention; the only way to concela it is by withholding vital information. Unfortunately, once you notice what is being withheld, the solution becomes that much more predictable. Why does Gina move in with her boyfriend after the accident, instead of going back home? Could it be that the filmmakers do not want us to see something in her apartment? And are we to believe that her friends and family never went to her apartment to fetch her clothes and toiletries while she was recovering in the hospital? (Ironically, the biggest unanswered question - what happened to the driver of the other car - does not figure into the mystery at all - you keep expecting some surprise in this regard, but the film never bothers addressing the subject at all.)

Ellis started out his career as a fashion photographer and it shows in his films. He is very keen on eye candy and he likes to show off. Even though the photography of The Broken has little in common with the flashy and glamorous look of fashion photography, Ellis’ attention to detail and almost perfect use of color owes more than a little to his former line of work. The film looks dark and gloomy from start to finish, with no bright or strong colors ever penetrating the darkened haze lying over the film. The editing is timid and the camera work often slow and even a little off-key. Intentionally so, as one strong scene with a mirror breaking off screen just after the camera has had it in frame for a good 30 seconds demonstrates. It’s scenes like this that add a lot to the mystery and uneasy atmosphere in the film.

Ultimately, the story would work better if it sustained the interpretation that what we are seeing really is the paranoid result of Gina’s post-traumatic stress from the accident. Unfortunately, too many objective scenes (in which her character does not appear) confirm that the doubles are real, robbing us of the best way to rationalize the logical shortcomings in the scenario.Worse, the film never bothers to offer any explanation for what is happening; the phenomena is simply presented without hint or rational. This would be acceptable if it viewers were given a few clues and invited to fill in the blanks, but there is no mention of parallel worlds of the folklore of mirrors or anything else; the doppelgangers remain an elusive plot device, their motives and behavior a complete mystery. They seem to be mirror images of the originals (down to their hearts being on the right side of the chest), but we never even know to what extent their memories duplicate the originals or even whether they can recognize each other. At times they manage to impersonate the people they have replaced; at others, they act like cliched pod people from INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

Visceral horror is, thankfully, kept to a minimum. Its one obvious outburst is a tad ridiculous, when a double kills its original by shoving a hand into her mouth - a method that looks at least as painful to the perpetrator as to the victim.The score is nice and atmospheric, though could’ve contributed a little more to the film. While it definitely adds to the atmosphere, it’s only in the last minute (and during the end credits) that Ellis shows how much more should have been done with it. The broken electronica of that last track fits so well with the film, but it’s the only time such an effect is applied. A missed opportunity, even though the rest of the score remains more than decent enough.

It’s not the visuals or music that will keep audiences away from The Broken though. The film is only 90 minutes long, but even in that small time frame Ellis keeps things vague and slow. Even though the uneasy atmosphere is ever present, there is not much happening on screen. There are two or three pretty effective scare scenes, but that doesn’t draw an audience to the theater anymore. The biggest problem with The Broken is that it never reveals much about what is going on. We follow the main character while stuff happens to her. Weird stuff that is never explained, not even hinted at. We see the “what”, but never understand the “who” or “why”. While this will definitely kill the movie for many, to me it was Ellis’ most brilliant move. It elevates The Broken above all those horror flicks trying to explain the unexplainable with some weak or badly thought up story twists. None of that here. And even though there is some kind of twist at the end of the film, it is hinted at a lot earlier so it shouldn’t really come as a big surprise. Ellis confirmed himself he didn’t set the film up to have a twist ending and by letting the audience in on it bit by bit he simply increased the mysterious feel as the film progressed.

Fortunately, Sean Ellis manages to sustain a creepy sense of paranoid dread thanks to the fear of being replaced by these mysterious usurpers. Visually, the film is very assured. The crucial car accident is spectacular, echoing the bullet-time slow-motion of Dario Argento’s climactic crash in FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET. In the grand tradition of modestly budgeted features, the editing contrives to show us this footage over and over (gotta get your money’s worth out of such a big piece of the budget), but the great thing is that the script justifies the repetition, because Gina frequently flashes back to the scene while trying to reconstruct her shattered memories. In a way these strong points makes THE BROKEN more frustrating than a film that is bad from beginning to end; it grips your attention throughout, only to leave you unsatisfied at the end. Nevertheless, the journey is worth taking even if the destination is disappointing.

Whether you can stomach being left behind in the dark is up to you, but if you think you can handle the lack of information on what the hell is happening, there is a little masterpiece hidden in The Broken. Ellis’ style is refreshing in between all the horror flicks fighting to be the goriest. Ellis’ focus is an uneasy atmosphere by leaving the audience in the dark and simply showing the facts from one point of view. By far one of the most stylish horror films to come out of England in quite a while. Ellis proves himself a great director, who can handle more than one style.

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