Aloft
Directed by: Claudia Llosa
Written by: Claudia Llosa
Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Cillian Murphy, Mélanie Laurent, Zen McGrath, William Shimell, Winta McGrath, Oona Chaplin, Ian Tracey, Peter McRobbie
Drama - 112 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 18 May 2015
Written by: Claudia Llosa
Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Cillian Murphy, Mélanie Laurent, Zen McGrath, William Shimell, Winta McGrath, Oona Chaplin, Ian Tracey, Peter McRobbie
Drama - 112 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 18 May 2015
The Sweet Hereafter (1996) is about a school bus full of young children crashing through the ice after an accident and its horrific consequences. I believe Claudia Llosa’s new film, Aloft, is even more depressing than that. I cannot remember leaving a movie theater as thoroughly sad, off put, and depressed as I was after Aloft. The harsh, just sub-Arctic climate and the dark gray tones are not the scapegoats here even though they do their best to add to the palsy. It’s the narrative. There are no winners here; nobody is going to get out. Dual stories in different timelines respectively advance toward their climaxes and then it is as if you wish they never got there. Aside from some compelling dramatic turns by Jennifer Connelly and Cillian Murphy, Aloft is as satisfying and compelling as the bleak Manitoba permafrost it is set in.
In timeline number one, with no exact year established but perhaps in the mid-‘90s, Nana (Connelly, 2014’s Noah) is a single mother raising two young boys, one who is severely ill. The script dances around the exact illness, but it is probably leukemia. Various scenes at the hospital demonstrate there is nothing to be done and Nana, in a fit of desperation, branches out to a local ‘healer’ or ‘medicine man’. This strange recluse going by the cult-like nom de plume of Architect Newman (William Shimell, 2012’s Amour), attempts to heal one child at a secluded outpost where only the truly desperate show up with their terminally ill children hoping they are the lucky ones selected. Nana’s boy, Gully (Winta McGrath), is not selected. However, the fractured family still impacts the healing process through a series of unfortunate events kicked off by Nana’s older son, Ivan (Zen McGrath).
In timeline number one, with no exact year established but perhaps in the mid-‘90s, Nana (Connelly, 2014’s Noah) is a single mother raising two young boys, one who is severely ill. The script dances around the exact illness, but it is probably leukemia. Various scenes at the hospital demonstrate there is nothing to be done and Nana, in a fit of desperation, branches out to a local ‘healer’ or ‘medicine man’. This strange recluse going by the cult-like nom de plume of Architect Newman (William Shimell, 2012’s Amour), attempts to heal one child at a secluded outpost where only the truly desperate show up with their terminally ill children hoping they are the lucky ones selected. Nana’s boy, Gully (Winta McGrath), is not selected. However, the fractured family still impacts the healing process through a series of unfortunate events kicked off by Nana’s older son, Ivan (Zen McGrath).
Flash forward 20 years to the present, Ivan (Murphy, 2014’s Transcendence) remains an avid falconer; in fact, it appears to be his bread and butter. Journalist Jannia Ressmore (Melanie Laurent, 2013’s Now You See Me) shows up for an interview about his methods and success but as soon as she offhandedly mentions Ivan’s mother, Ivan recoils even further into his unpleasant persona as he readies to strike. Ivan carries some long lingering hate and spite at the mere mention of his mother. Why? The two story tracks will reveal that in due time, but a journey is launched. Jannia is on Nana’s trail and Ivan decides to tag along for the ride. Does he want closure? A fight? His motives are as fickle as the ever present blowing snowstorms outside.
The two narrative trails jump back and forth into one another, usually with no warning, just at convenient pauses. The arcs mirror Llosa’s scheme of dueling tales each advancing at their slow pace until they reach the top of their mountains at roughly the same time. We learn why all the bile and life shattering bitterness a few moments before Ivan and Jannia rediscover Nana. This storytelling method is effective at prolonging the mystery about what happened so long ago and tying up the incremental journeys of both young Nana and older Ivan. It is not the filmmaking which kept me at arms-length from the characters, it was the writing.
Even though younger Nana has very limited options with her meager income and lack of support from the medical community, she still makes some awful choices. What would a family drama be without confounding options and their consequences, but Nana is not a character many in the audience will warm up to and root for. Younger Ivan is much more repugnant and that is a testament to the fine work of young actor Zen McGrath. This kid is more than believable and carries some significant emotional weight for the film.
Perhaps more family tragedy than family drama, Aloft is so cold throughout, both in its northern Canadian surroundings and within the central family, almost nobody will enjoy themselves or feel richer for sitting through it. Perhaps endure is a better descriptive verb for the feeling. Claudia Llosa’s film, The Milk of Sorrow (2009), was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Academy award, the first Peruvian director to achieve that accolade; unfortunately, Aloft will not even approach the low foothills of that success. For your emotional well-being, swerve to avoid the cold and sterile Aloft as you would a dangerous patch of black ice.
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