High Tension A review by Matt Noller (www.uhmovies.co.nr) Rating: **1/2 (out of ****)
Pseudo-spoiler warning: I don't explicitly give away the film's twist here, but readers (all one of you) may be able to figure it out through my comments.
High Tension is an impossible movie. And I don't mean that in the sense that the events of the film would never happen, although their occurrence is probably unlikely; many films require us to suspend disbelief of their central ideas, and I am willing to do so. No, the film ends with a twist that I have not only had to endure far too often, but one that also makes nearly everything that happens before it literally, physically impossible. There is no way to explain it other than that things never happened as we were shown, which is misleading and dishonest. The film flat-out lies to the audience, and that I cannot forgive.
Which is a crying shame, because, for the most part, the film is a terrific little slasher picture, well-made and suitably grisly. As with all films of the genre, it's plot is simple. Marie (Cécile de France) and Alex (Maïwenn) go to Alex's family's country home to study. While there, a man (Gaspar Noé favorite Phillippe Nahon) breaks in, kidnaps Alex and brutally murders her family. Marie accidentally stows away in the killer's truck and sets out to free her friend.
Director Alexandre Aja milks this premise for all it's worth. I am not a big fan of the genre he is working in - most slashers end up just being tiresome, off-putting series of murders - here, however, the events are truly exciting and, well, tense. The film is fast-paced, never pausing to give either its protagonist or the audience a rest. This is helped by de France's performance, which is a tour de force of hard work and physical prowess; she invests her character with gravity, so we care what happens. Like everyone else she is betrayed by the twist, but that does not devalue her skill.
Unfortunately, none of the other actors are given a chance to show off, due to Lions Gate Films' decision to dub the film into English. A result of cuts made after the (originally NC-17) film was purchased out of the 2003 Toronto Film Festival, the dubbing is a distracting mistake. It is synched as well as could be expected, but the voice work is just horrendous, flat and unnatural; it also leads to the decision to make Alex an American, which is pointless and dumb.
Luckily, however, there is very little dialogue. Most of the running length is dedicated to tense action set pieces - such as the original murders, a potentially deadly game of bumper cars between Marie and the killer or a chase through a forest - that rank among the most exhilarating of the year.
Of course, all of this good will is discarded by the twist, which, in retrospect, rids all of those sequences of their power. It also seems to reveal a disturbing facet of Aja's mind, a view of homosexuality - lesbianism in particular - as bestial and dangerous. This could just be my sensitive liberal brain playing tricks, but I doubt it; so not only is the twist hopelessly retarded, it is also offensive. Watching High Tension is akin to eating a delicious, spicy Spanish dinner and then getting a swift kick to the nads.
(c) 2005 Matt Noller, not that anyone would ever want to steal this
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