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•• Foreign Film Edition ••
ICH SEH, ICH SEH (GOODNIGHT MOMMY)
[2014, Austria - German]

Goodnight Mommy was featured in my fiLmsToLoOkOutFoR last Sept and I finally got hold of its long-awaited DVD. Chosen as Austria's foreign-language submission for this year's Oscar, it's the first narrative feature from Austrian writer-directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. It's not going to be easy fitting this film into any typical genre, some argued against it being labelled as horror, and there are clear elements as well pointing it towards psychological thriller and arthouse. Regardless which, this remarkable yet disturbing film has been garnering critical acclaim ever since it made a splash in last year's Venice Film Festival.

Goodnight Mommy starts off by introducing adolescent twin brothers Elias and Lukas (Elias and Lukas Schwarz), idyllic shots of them playing in the cornfields, swimming in the lakes and exploring caves, all within the vicinity of their cosy home standing alone far into the rural Austria. Then a woman (Susanne Wuest) arrives, face swathed in bandages, telling them that she's their mother, returning home from some unspecified operation. Cautious but happy to see her, it doesn't take long before they notice their mother's strange behaviour, imposing her set of suspicious rules like keeping the blinds down at all times, refusing any visitors and even seemingly attempting to pit one brother against the other. Soon mistrust takes a toll on them, tensions escalate painfully threatening the mother-son relationship and audience is left entirely unsure of which side we should be rooting for.

The magic word about Goodnight Mommy for me is ambiguity. There will be many aspects in the film that will raise questions, some even unanswered as the credits roll. And ambiguity can only work if it's intentional and executed in good taste. Directors Franz and Fiala have obviously devoted extensively in creating the intended environment for the story. They want the audience to learn about the characters and plot through seemingly austere but cryptic scenes provided throughout the story. Take for instance the simple guessing game of Who Am I, that scene serves to heighten our suspicion on the mother's identity, and at the same time allowing us to know a little bit more about how she used to be. Audience will also be impressed with the handsome looking house, and if paid close enough attention, you will learn that the house is an extension of the mother's character. The closed blinds, the out of focus images on the walls, all play a role in adding to the mystery of a woman whom you can't quite get a hold on.

The ambitious duo puts a lot of emphasis on making a cinematic experience that is real and absorbing. All of the violence served is not done with chainsaws and ripping of body parts, but mere tools which are more 'reachable' within a child's world, like magnifying glass and superglue, yet enough to give us a few skin-crawling moments. It was decided as well that they'd film everything on 35mm instead of going digital, where they would decide everything on the set instead of making the end product totally something else post-shoot with some technicians in a lab. Even the pair of twins are not spared, as they are only given bits of the plots as they go along each day in their shooting, allowing them to experience their characters' fear and emotions as much as possible. 

The result, I liked it. I've always revelled in how a film can have such a lasting effect on you, making you think again about each scene which carries significant meaning or implications. And particularly, a film that is tastefully "ambiguous" to trigger audience's varying interpretations and conclusions. Some may complain about the two parts of the film which seem inconsistent in theme, but that was again, intentional. Franz and Fiala wanted to tell the first part of the story from the perspective of the children, hence the dreamy and fairy-tale like sequences, hence the countless question marks, going almost silent at great lengths and relying heavily on visuals; whilst the second part is where reality sips in, inching us closer and uncomfortably towards how it would climax when children's boundaries are pushed. It's not even an issue that the twist is embarrassingly obvious at an early stage, you'd find yourself still eagerly wanting to know what comes next until the end. I find Goodnight Mommy cleverly done (with the exception of one particular scene with the Red Cross which I feel the film could absolutely do without), coupled with an eye-candy cinematography by Martin Gschlacht, it's not what you'd call an upbeat horror, but its gradual yet stylishly constructed downward slide into a familial mayhem will leave quite a devastating impact on you. And that's the directors' intent as well.

Rating: A-

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