You know, I'm kind of glad "The Corridor" is the second film I looked at here for this little trilogy. I usually give decent to glowing reviews to nearly everything I see that's IFC Midnight, and someone might see that as playing favorites or just being a fanboy. I assure you, while their track record, as far as I am concerned, has pretty much been spot on up to now, that doesn't make me play favorites. I can prove that right now in fact, because the unfortunate truth of the matter is that I really didn't care too much for "The Corridor."
So while I'm a little bummed that IFC Midnight made a movie I didn't care for, at least it's not going to be three straight entries of saying "This was a good movie." After all, what fun is being a movie snob if you can't bitch a bit? That's where the fun is!
"The Corridor" can really be summed up with the following question: "What if Stephen King wrote a story about a bunch of friends in the wintery woods that wasn't "Dreamcatcher" after passing out while watching "Donnie Darko" after smoking half of a brick of weed?"
What? Don't like at me like that. I can't have been the only person to ever ask that question.
The look of a man who just blew his own mind.
Anyways, it is very Stephen King-esque, what with a group of close-nit friends on the cusp of getting old who find that they have very grown up problems now and aren't really coping with it very well. Also, one of them is an asshole, one is them is a nerd, one of them is a jock, one of them is insane, and one is the main character. And they also treat each other like total crap to the point where honestly I have no idea why they still associate with each other. Yeah, this sounds like a Stephen King story. Oh well. At least it's not taking place in Maine.
"The Corridor" starts with a rather confusing scene (get used to that phrase) where the crazy one, Tyler, is locked in a closet with a knife, and his mom is lying on the ground dead of a pill overdose, and he has gone slightly nuts. This is where the crazy thing comes in for him. I'm assuming he wasn't crazy before. The rest of the cast come in and restrain him, but not before Tyler slices the asshole's face and stabs the main character's hand. Flash forward to an undisclosed period of time later, Tyler is out of the nuthouse, and they have all gone up to a cabin to have a party/funeral for Tyler's mom.
The interaction between these guys is actually pretty realistic. The acting in "The Corridor" is admittedly quite well done, and it's a strong ensemble cast that features what I'm assuming is among the very finest in Canadian actors you've never heard of. Although the asshole, played by Stephen Gilbert was in "Saw VI." And the main character played by David Patrick Flemming looks a bit like Damian Lewis. How's that for prestige?
Yay Canada!
I did dig the performances in this, even though most of the movie consists of them being total jerks to each other. It does make sense though. I mean, if a friend of yours just came out of the looney bin after stabbing about 50% of the group, I'd be a tad wary as well, although I think their default setting is simply "TOOL." I'm just saying, maybe exceedingly harsh "good-natured" ribbing can be checked at the door at your friend's mother's funeral, especially when he's been checked out of the asylum for less than a day. But that's just me.
It makes me wonder again why on earth these guys want anything to do with each other in the first place, because they clearly don't like each other very much the majority of the time. This is made worse when the eponymous corridor is found. What the corridor is, I can't really tell you. That is the point in the movie where it really starts getting crazy weird. And just to reassure you, no, it never is really explained. Suffice to say that the corridor is bad, and makes people do very bad things.
Basically, the corridor is like a force field that is only visible when someone walks inside it. Kind of. Every time someone walks into it, it gets bigger. I think. Since the corridor can't speak for itself and the characters are just as in the dark about the nature of the corridor as we as the audience are, it's really all conjecture. And while there are several confusing scenes were one of the characters, under the influence of the corridor, start yelling and screaming about what "it" wants and what "it" means, all that winds up generally happening is that these people act like maniacs and start killing each other.
I get the feeling that it's one of those movies that is meant to be one big metaphor, but I'll be damned if I could tell you what it's a metaphor for. Perhaps if I put on my Pretentious Cap and thought a bit I might be able to equate the corridor to man's basic dark instinct, or maybe having something to do with how society tells us to suppress those feelings which can end in violent outbursts, or maybe it's a metaphor for how we're all animals and we'll rip each other to pieces given half a chance. I don't know. I think you'd have to stretch a lot and get really snooty to try and extract deeper meaning from this. But man, there's enough obfuscation to really make you feel like you missed something.
"You fool! If we explain crap we don't look intellectual!"
Oh and someone gets crucified. I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to make an artsy film without a crucifixion. It's just common sense.
Speaking of that, I do have to give the movie credit with some of the "shock" moments. "The Corridor" is not an exceedingly gory film, but it does have some moments of "Eeeewww," if you will. The most notable moment for me was one of the characters getting scalped, as the party holding the knife says, "for his own good." This is at the point where the corridor is completely making these guys go crazy-go-nuts, and I must admit it's pretty creepy. Most motivational speakers don't scalp you, put your scalp on another guy's head, then pat you on the back and say "I'm proud of you," all while everyone in the room is smiling and happy. That's messed up. And rather confusing.
Other than the occasional shocking moment like that, I can't really find much to recommend "The Corridor." It's not that it's a bad film necessarily, since it is well directed, has memorable scenes, and most of all is quite well acted. It's just that by the end, it just left me kind of hollow. I didn't really pull anything from this movie, even though the lead-in to it was good. The ending is so crazy and nonsensical that it really makes you feel that this journey through insanity just wasn't worth it.
There are few movies that can stand up simply on the merits of being crazy. If a movie is going to take you on a psychotropic trip, it better be for a good reason. The payoff better be rewarding in some way. Movies like "The Fountain" or "Black Swan" or "Inception" or "A Clockwork Orange" or "Donnie Darko" or even "Primer" will have your brain doing cartwheels for days because there was a lot to take in and a lot to think about. But if you get to the end of the movie and all you can say is "Well, that was weird," then what's the point? Weird for the sake of weird?
Dammit, Japan. Stop making weird things adorable.
THE BOTTOM LINE - Fans of strange, obtuse stories that might be considered vaguely metaphorical (did I just describe Sundance?) might get a kick out of "The Corridor." While I usually like weird stuff, despite the good acting, this one didn't do much for me, mostly because of the really unsatisfying, explain absolutely nothing ending. Other than that, in a change of pace for IFC Midnight, I'd skip this one.
I loved your review. After watching this movie I thought I had missed something by the end. Nothing kills a movie faster than an unsatisfying ending. Even if the movie has a great start.
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