CIFF 2005 FILM REVIEW: THE DARK HOURS

It’s the fears I’m most interested in. If film as a medium is best when it inspires empathy then films that escort us skillfully through the dark things we all like to keep hidden about our journey through life but can’t really escape are like torches in the darkness. Films like Psycho, Session 9, Clean Shaven, One Hour Photo and Memento all explore guilt, shame, the moral scrabbling we find ourselves engaging in to guarantee our own version of survival. We fight to save our lives just when we should lose them to find salvation. If we let them then they keep us honest, keep us from having to go down those dark roads. They are at their core cautionary tales about madness, murder and justification - you know, all those things humans do so well.

Paul Fox’s The Dark Hours is a skillful journey through all that above territory and more. It doesn’t really classify as a classic but it is classy, well written, well acted and very hard to watch exactly when it needs to be to offer more than mere entertainment.

When Dr. Samantha Goodman, surprises her husband and sister on his winter working trip at the family cottage she has more on her mind than r & r. But before she can do more than start talking an unexpected complication arises in the form of Harlan Pyne, an escaped sexual predator and former patient. Taking them hostage Harlan forces the family into a series of sick surreal games intended to reveal the truth about everyone there. But reveal it to whom?

While reminiscent in plot to Michael Haneke’s excellent 1997 film Funny Games this Canadian effort has something different in mind - not an easy task given that the psychological thriller has been done to death recently. But Paul Fox is a very smart filmmaker. Just when you think you have his next move figured out he betrays you, shattering the comfort zone with a revelation that isn’t so much about who done it but why and why it matters. There is a moral urgency here that is much more important than whether or not you have the ending figured out by the end of the film - I’m guessing you won’t. What Fox does with one simple pan across the room in a key moment will leave you breathless.

At a tight 82 minutes this film has an amazing amount of genuine human drama and character development but then again those are the things that, when powerfully present, have made the psychological suspense genre more than just a genre. It's a genre that occasionally gets better than The Dark Hours but my guess is you'll be talking about this film far longer than many of it's brethren. Suspense may get a little better but doesn’t get much darker.