Thelma Review | VIFF 2017

<p>Joachim Trier&&num;8217&semi;s films up to this point have focused on the fragility of life&period; I never found myself to be a fan of his debut film&comma; <em>Reprise<&sol;em>&comma; but <em>Oslo August 31st <&sol;em>and <em>Louder Than Bombs<&sol;em> were two of my favorite films of the last few years&period; Trier&&num;8217&semi;s placed men in the center of his films and created something grounded&comma; full of personality&comma; and occasionally novelistic&period; <em>Thelma <&sol;em>just about manages to do the exact opposite of all the things previously mentioned&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Eili Harboe stars as Thelma&comma; a young religious college student navigating her way through the world&period; She&&num;8217&semi;s shy and can&&num;8217&semi;t quite seem to make any friends&period; Trier sets the audience up for a supernatural coming-of-age thriller as Thelma suffers from a violent seizure as crows kill themselves flying into the glass windows of the library she&&num;8217&semi;s in&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s at this moment Trier&&num;8217&semi;s trademark style is at odds with the supernatural elements of the film&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130836" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130836" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-130836" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;23215157&sol;Thelma-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Thelma &lowbar; 2" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130836" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Thelma&comma; The Orchard&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Thelma <&sol;em>never manages to succeed in making the situation feel relateable and Trier never lets us empathize because we&&num;8217&semi;re spending so much time trying to figure out what the problem is in the first place&period; As the audience&comma; the film has already shown us that it is something supernatural&period; Either Trier wanted to stick to the realism and let things come out as they would or he wanted there to be a crescendo where the climax would come together with full emotional release&period; <em>Thelma <&sol;em>is immediately derailed by the tones of the film not melding or not choosing the specific kind of movie he wanted in the first place&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With all that being said&comma; there are some well done set-pieces that usually all stay in the perspective of our protagonist&period; Harboe&&num;8217&semi;s performance grounds the material and makes her situation believable&comma; but the direction makes her feel distant&period; The editing in the moments showcasing <em>Thelma<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s undefined powers taking over is stellar&comma; and the score from Ola Flottum seems at odds with itself&period; Again&comma; the movie never decides whether it wants to sound like a 90&&num;8217&semi;s erotic thriller or an early 80&&num;8217&semi;s John Carpenter film&period; With all those things considered&comma; at the very least&comma; <em>Thelma <&sol;em>is one mess of a film&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130837" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130837" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-130837" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;23215245&sol;Thelma-1-e1508809944112&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Thelma &lowbar; 1" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"401" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130837" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Thelma&comma; The Orchard&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>There are portions of the coming-of-age narrative work&period; Thelma&&num;8217&semi;s sexual awakening is portrayed tastefully&comma; but the eroticism is still present&period; There can be a lot to like about <em>Thelma <&sol;em>until you come to your senses and realize you&&num;8217&semi;re watching <em>Carrie&period; <&sol;em>When I had the realization&comma; the film fell apart in an instant&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s little to no creativity in the story department as little dashes of family life are some of the only changes that truly distance the two works&period; The style of Brian De Palma is replaced with the confused tone supplied by Joachim Trier&period; <em>Thelma <&sol;em>is never as striking as <em>Carrie <&sol;em>but the similarities are too great to ignore&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There&&num;8217&semi;s a lot going for Trier&&num;8217&semi;s latest film&comma; but it all bogs down to the pieces never coming together to form a united whole&period; Nothing in the film ever seems like a lot of work wasn&&num;8217&semi;t put into it&comma; but the pieces never fit together&period; Trier is a director that will always have my attention&period; <em>Thelma <&sol;em>isn&&num;8217&semi;t a complete waste of time&period; It just felt like it was&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;