TWIXT

Wow, I did not see this coming!  You may remember back at the start of last year that “Twixt” was one of my top four most anticipated films of 2011 (back then the film still had the much cooler sounding title “Twixt Now And Sunrise”).  The reason for my excitement was that this was master filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola’s new film and that it was his first to dabble in the horror genre since his 1992 version of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”, also little was known about the film which lent an added mystery to it.  2011 came and went and “Twixt” did not see a release, however it did screen at a couple of film festivals, and the reviews that came from them were not good.  Check that, they were woeful.  Critics remarked that this was arguably the worst film in Francis Ford Coppola’s career and unbelievably for someone of his talent, that the film was inept.  I could not believe what I was reading and when a trailer for “Twixt” was finally released, it seemed to confirm what the critics had been saying.  To be blunt, it looked like an amateur had filmed it, there was no way that the guy who created “The Godfather” trilogy had anything to do with this film.  Although my expectations dropped considerably (almost completely), I still wanted to see “Twixt” because it surely could not have been as bad as it looked.  However it is with a deep sadness that I have to report that it is indeed that bad, in fact it could even be worse.

The film is about a C-grade horror novelist, Hall Baltimore, who specializes in a series of teenage witch novels.  He heads to an unnamed sleepy town for a book signing (the bookstore amusingly shares space with the hardware store of the town) where the local sheriff, Bobby LaGrange, tries to convince him to co-write a book together about a series of recent murders that took place in the town.  Baltimore declines, stating that he works alone, but that night while sleeping in his hotel room, he finds his dreams haunted by one of the victims of this horrible crime.  He is so bewitched by the young girl, named “V”, and her story that when he finally awakens from the strange dream, Baltimore sees an escape from the never ending series of witch books he has been stuck writing, and a chance to write something more personal and that would mean more to him than just a check in the mail.  Baltimore goes to see LaGrange to agree to his proposal.  Since Baltimore awoke from his slumber before the dream finished and thus the mystery solved, he realizes that he must go back to sleep to find out the end of his story.  This time when he enters the dream world, Edgar Allan Poe is there (what?!?!) to help guide him along the right path.

As you can see from the plot above, the film does have potential (well, I don’t know about the Poe part) but what has been presented here just does not cut it.  I will admit that I respect Coppola for abandoning big-budget faceless filmmaking so late in his career to focus on making more low budget and personal films.  It is something that George Lucas keeps saying that he is going to do, only to end up tinkering with his “Star Wars” films again.  Just from the above synopsis you can see that “Twixt” is a personal film as a lot of Hall Baltimore’s characteristics mirror that of Coppola himself.  Things like they both want to create works that are more personal and Baltimore tragically lost a daughter to a boating accident (sadly Coppola’s own son shared the same fate).  In fact the main story for “Twixt” came from a dream that Coppola himself had that he felt was so powerful that he had to make the film just so he knew how the story would end.

The main problem with “Twixt” is the fact that it looks like Coppola has just filmed what he had dreamed without working on the story to make it work cinematically.  The film doesn’t even work in a dream logic fashion which filmmakers like David Lynch are a master at.  “Twixt” never once feels like a dream, rather it looks like someone recreating what they think a dream feels like.  Story-wise, the film is all over the place and barely makes any sense.  There is no “mystery” in the murder mystery itself and there is a whole group of “goth” like characters that are introduced who ultimately have no real importance to the film at all.  The leader of the group, Flamingo, is introduced in a grand way but has nothing to do with the main plot.  I also had a problem with the costume and make-up design of the goth characters which were totally overdone.  Even the ghost “V”, while she does look ethereal, I felt it was just too much especially those buck teeth.

On a technical level I could not believe how poor “Twixt” was also.  In the past when Coppola made a dud, at least it had been put together in grand style, but that just isn’t the case here.  The worst example is the terrible and cheap looking cinematography.  What makes this all the more shocking is that Coppola has used the same cinematographer, Mihai Malaimare Jr., on his past three films and both “Youth Without Youth” and “Tetro” looked stunning, so I do not know what has gone wrong here.  I will admit that every now and then during the film you would get a decent shot, such as the Hitchcock-like shots in the clock tower, but overall I was extremely disappointed with the visual style of “Twixt”.  The special effects are also a disgrace - in fact there is nothing “special” about them at all.  I made a loud audible groan when a shot of the moon appeared with Poe’s face imposed on it, and the shots of Flamingo riding his motorbike…..I seriously do not know what to say, they were a travesty.  I almost stopped watching the film at this point it was that bad.  Also I do not remember the last time I saw matte paintings as bad as the ones used here.  I cannot get into my mind that the man who made “Apocalypse Now” is the same man responsible for “Twixt”, talk about a fall from grace.

The strange thing about “Twixt” is that even despite its deficiencies, parts of the film are actually watchable.  The main reason for this is the performances from Val Kilmer (who plays Hall Baltimore) and Bruce Dern (who plays the mad sheriff, Bobby LaGrange) and while they will not win any awards for their work here, at least they are at times entertaining.  Kilmer is actually quite funny in parts, especially in a scene when he is trying to find the inspiration to start writing his book.  During the scene he does a fabulous impression of Marlon Brando from “Apocalypse Now” which sadly is the highlight of the film.  Dern completely overacts the entire film and is anything but subtle but at least he is having fun, which is something that “Twixt” needed a lot more of.  Sadly I felt that the usually great Elle Fanning put in a dud performance as “V”, although I think that Coppola’s screenplay did her no favours in that regard.  Maybe I just couldn’t get past those fake looking teeth but for once she just seemed uninspired in her role.

 An interesting side-note regarding “Twixt” was the fact that originally Coppola had planned to take the film on the road and present it where he would edit the film “live” depending on the reactions of the crowd watching it, making each viewing a unique experience.  Scenes would be lengthened, different takes used, scenes would be shortened or dropped all depending on what aspects of the film the audience were responding to on any given night.  That meant that the film could play more with comedic elements or go darker towards more horror elements.  While I appreciate the novelty of this, it wasn’t to be and I assume it was due to the fact that the film is such a turkey that it didn’t matter what you did to it, it was never going to work.

Overall, I was stunningly disappointed by the latest film from Francis Ford Coppola.  He just did not seem to have a handle on it at any stage, making strange and irrelevant decisions throughout (do not get me started on the needless Tom Waits narration).  I felt that “Twixt” was rushed into production before it was anywhere near ready, with the screenplay itself needing a good couple of rewrites or drafts.  On a technical level, this is the poorest work I have yet to see in a Coppola film, with some of the worst special effects I have seen in recent times.  While Val Kilmer and Bruce Dern provide some laughs, ultimately this is also a poorly performed film too.  The inclusion of Edgar Allan Poe as a character just seems like a terrible misstep and the ending (although providing the best visual elements of the film) just does not make any sense.  It pains me to say it, but “Twixt” is a real dud, if you get the chance to see it, I recommend that you do not waste your money and to avoid it.

1 Star.