Dogtooth

DOGTOOTH (2009) - Apr. 23, 2011
Bizarre, interesting but ultimately kind of a failure of a film, this was about a couple who have raised their three children -- now fully grown -- in complete seclusion, with no contact with the outside world (and, for some strange reason, teaching them bits of information that are blatantly false).  There's no real plot here: the movie begins, we see various odd happenings with the three siblings, then it ends.  A few things do happen, but it's generally just a month or so in the (weird) life of these characters.  The problem is that the characters and their situation are so bizarre, and we're never really given any reason to care about them.  The film does a good job of establishing this strange world that the characters live in, but it doesn't really add up to all that much, because the viewer is kept at a constant arm's length.  The movie was very handsomely made (Thimios Bakatakis' beautiful widescreen cinematography was easily the highlight of the film), and I was into it for a while (it's definitely unique, and pretty effective at establishing and maintaining its own off-kilter universe), but it eventually wore me down.  **