ENTER THE VOID

I was really hoping that this would have been my favourite film of MIFF this year, but also knew that it could turn out the opposite.  The director, Gaspar Noe, has a habit of creating films that split the audiences down the middle – you either love it or hate it.  Noe’s previous film, “Irreversible”, I thought was brilliant, so I was definitely looking forward to “Enter The Void”.  Unfortunately, it is utter rubbish, and worse it is self-indulgent. 

The film is about a junkie, Max, who gets fatally shot by police during a drug deal.  Immediately after his death, his spirit leaves his body and continues to float through Tokyo witnessing how his friends and family are coping after his death.  After this, his life flashes before his eyes, then we get more floating around Tokyo, until he is finally reborn. 

The film is shot entirely from Max’s point-of-view and since he is dead, looking down on his loved ones, that means that the majority of the film is shot from that one angle.  The running time is an excruitiating two and a quarter hours and it just never seems to end (if it was an hour shorter, it may have been a better experience……maybe), and the scenes during the end at the “love hotel” were pathetic and obviously just there to shock. 

Another thing that I hated was the recurring image of the car crash that killed Max’s parents, because it was used over and over, just in an attempt to shock or startle the audience, so much so that it becomes exploitative.  The other thing that pissed me off no end was that near the beginning of the film, Max is given a book entitled “The Book Of The Dead” and it explains the levels a spirit goes through when you die.  It was done with no subtlety at all, and if it doesn’t scream “plot device”, I do not know what does.  It just wasn’t organic to the story at all and was just used to explain the next two hours. 

Overall, I hated this film, it was over-long, self-indulgent and had some truly woeful scenes in it that were beyond embarrassing (do not get me started about the scene when his soul enters his friends body, while he is having intercourse with Max’s sister! What?!?!).  It is also ugly to look at (which was a surprise because I usually like cinematographer Benoit Debie work – his recent work on “The Runaways” [read my review here] was spectacular).  Avoid (although there are people who think this film is genius.  I told you, love it or hate it).

1 Star - Viewed at the 2010 Melbourne International Film Festival