10s Movie Review - Hold the Dark

Director: Jeremy Saulnier

Genre: Action/ Crime/ Drama
Runtime: 125 minutes
Year: 2018
Starring: Jeffrey Wright, Alexander Skarsgård, James Badge Dale, Riley Keough

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2023 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 51: A MOVIE SET IN WINTER

Description: After the deaths of three children suspected ro be killed by wolves, writer Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) is hired by the mother (Riley Keough) of a missing six-year-old boy to trach down and locate her son in the Alaskan wilderness.

Review: In chilly and icy Alaska, director Jeremy Saulnier finds a background that makes his characters unpredictable. So when Russell Core, a wolf expert, arrives there to assist a mother whose son was taken by wolves, he doesn’t realize what he’s getting into. A loose soldier, a trigger-happy Indian and a mother whose isolation seems to transform her into some kind of wandering demon are not immediately pleasant company, however. The quiet Core fortunately finds an ally in the stable sheriff, but both soon prove defenseless. The darkness, the snow, the wolves and the void prove maddening and relentless.
 
The plot is draped around the atmospheric location and therefore just flutters. For example, the mother character is not particularly strong developed even though her actions should function as the story’s starting point. “Hold the Dark’’ seeks to reflect on the state of the human spirit in an environment that seems to be consumed by time and nature, but the attention quickly turns to be dormant tension and gory actions for lack of depth, giving this movie the allure of an action thriller rather than a haunting psychological drama.
 
“Hold the Dark” holds the attention, though you’re not sure what you’re looking at. The cleverly staged narrative takes shape in thoughtful compositions of light and shadow, in which actions are unpredictable. But it’s the action packed moments that stick with you more than the understated psyche. Promising, yet not quite successful.

Rating: 3/ 5