Don't Look Now (1973)

Director: Nicholas Roeg

Writers: Daphne Du Maurier, Allan Scott, Chris Bryant

Composer: Pino Donaggio

Starring: Donald "I get so naked in this movie you can almost see my keifer" Sutherland and Julie "I got to see Donald's keifer" Christie

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: A psychic thriller.

Plot: John and Laura Baxter are living in Venice when they meet a pair of elderly sisters, one of whom claims to be psychic. She insists that she sees the spirit of the Baxters' daughter, who recently drowned. Laura is intrigued, but John resists the idea. Ever the skeptic, John tries to cope with his wife slipping away and the death of their daughter. Spooky things happen.

My Rating: 9/10
Would I watch it again? Yep

This is my first experience watching a Nicholas Roeg film and I really like his style. Like M. Night Shyamalan and Narciso Ibanez Serrador (see review of THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED) he takes his dear sweet time and unravels tiny pieces of the story one by one leading you down all different kinds of avenues but still staying focused on a single idea/task. Then all of the sudden it hits you A) in the build-up to the end (minutes from the "what did I miss?" moment), B) the actual event at the end, C) after the movie, or D) still after the movie but you went to http://www.imdb.com/ to read about what the hell just happened so you can move on with your life. I picked D. I have moved on.

Now back to the beginning. I'm not going to ruin anything by telling you how incredibly AWSOME the little girl's drowning death is in the opening minutes of the film. From the moment you see her (and it takes several minutes until her death) you feel nothing but dread and you know she's going to die and it's not a matter of how just a matter of when. Roeg cuts between the young daughter (and her younger brother) and the parents (Sutherland and Christie). It's almost painful to watch because of the impending disaster that's about to happen but it keeps going past the point where you think it's going to happen several times. Agonizing and masterful on Roeg's part. I'm hooked.

If you've read the above plot I can skip all of that jazz. Say, did you know that Donald Sutherland can really act? I don't think I've seen an awful lot of his work outside of MASH, THE DIRTY DOZEN, KELLY'S HEROES, SPACE COWBOYS and the odd small roles he did like in his butt-cameo in ANIMAL HOUSE. I was impressed watching him...uh...act instead of being some whacked-out-stoner-hippie.

OK, so far Roeg knocked me out with that super-tense begining. Then he's got a sex scene between the two that wow'd me not because of how explicit it was but how damn sensual it felt. You really feel the deep love these two shared. I'm not being silly here; I'm serious. I was really taken aback by the whole thing. And because of all of that it was HOT! I'm normally indifferent when it comes to a love/sex scene because they usually are there to spice things up and sell tickets. Roeg gives us the skin, sure, but it's not what you see that makes it work but what you feel and sense. THAT'S the difference. It's much like a photograph of a strawberry that is so good that you can literally smell/taste it. It's not easy to do and I don't think, when it comes to a love scene, I've seen it done so well before.

Then there's the ending. I won't spoil anything because I hate it when people do that. I will say this; it's good. Very good. So good I couldn't put all the pieces together at once because I'm still soaking up the rest of the film. It's like I said before, I chose D. I'm glad I did, too, because even though I was partly on target, I found many more possibilities from other viewers that gave it more depth. I'm looking forward to watching it again with that knowledge in mind.