re:mote voices

Title: Fear X
Cast: John Turturro, Deborah Kara Unger, Stephen McIntyre, William Allen Young, Jacqueline Ramel, James Remar
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Two people have been killed in a shooting. One of them is a local woman, the wife of one of the security guards of the mall where the shooting has happened. The man however was a stranger, and no one quite knows who he was. The woman’s husband has become obsessed, each day he stalks the mall look for the face of a killer, each night he scours endless security videos, desperate for a clue. Desperate to understand how his wife was killed, why she was killed. In the mean time speculation is rife as to the identity of the mystery man, the latest theory being that he was a drug enforcement agent. In the mean time the police are speculating as to the past of the woman, what has she done that might have made her the target?

Fear X is the first American film by the Danish director responsible for Bleeder and Pusher, two related and reasonably successful Danish thrillers. The film is adapted from a short story by Hubert Selby Jr, the writer who was responsible for the books Last Exit To Brooklyn and Requiem For A Dream, both of which have been turned into films in the past. Also of note is that one of the people behind the composition of the sound track is Brian Eno, a sound track which is particularly atmospheric and moody, contributing well to the overall feel of the film.

In some ways Fear X is quite successful in creating a mood, but as it goes on it starts to lose its way a little. John Turtorro stars as the security guard, haunted by daily visions of his wife. Increasingly tense, so that he receiving warnings at work. Obsessed, we watch the display on his wall build, photographs and notes, images captured with a digital camera from the endless stream of security footage, and printed out for his wall, for his pocket. During this section we see him stalking the mall watching every face, sat at night the screen is taken over by the fast forward stream of blurry black and white film. Some how he starts to get a couple of clues, which lead the film into a tangent, into the mind of the killer and how he is reacting to events. Especially when a stranger turns up in his town asking questions.

There are hallucinated moments, the tension and panic of Turtoro’s character as he gets further out there. These lend a certain claustrophobic effect, but as the film reaches its conclusion it also starts to feel like the film has flipped out there. This has led to comparisons to the work of David Lynch, and a similar kind of ambiguity to the films conclusion comes with that. Which personally gives me a degree of dissatisfaction. The build of the film held promise, but it too quickly feels like its losing direction, and more questions are being put up than are necessarily being answered with events.