Nicolas Winding Refn, the director behind Bronson, Drive, and other films with artistic appeal, comes with his latest movie, which looks quite pretty but has a muddled, undecipherable plot. I am not exactly sure what message Refn is trying to convey through his latest film. The movie presents some semblance of a coherent idea, but is simply poorly executed. The actors all seem to be invested, and on the same wavelength as their filmmaker, but I wish they would let us in on what they seem to know.
Sophie Thatcher stars as Elle, an attractive young woman living in a dystopian society where “The Mist,” a foggy gas, seems to hurt the world and keeps people mostly indoors. Elle lives in a lavish penthouse in a high-rise building with other attractive women who seem to serve a man named Johnny Thunders, aka Daddy, (Dougray Scott) a man of means who keeps them well nourished and protected as they do his bidding. Elle feels that her birth father is still out there, somewhere, and hopes he will rescue her from what seems to be a form of slavery. Meanwhile, a U.S. soldier (Charles Melton) seeks his missing daughter who may be held captive by the men in power who are enslaving women during this time to do whatever they desire.
While I know my synopsis might seem crystal clear, this is what I can only discern from the visuals and scenarios that Nicolas Winding Refn provides. What The Mist actually is, and who Johnny Thunders actually is, and all that happens in the film is an absolute exercise in frustration, because Refn never offers his audience a straight answer to what exactly is happening. The story also involves a boogeyman, known as the “Leather Man,” a humanoid creature with supernatural powers who has the strength to tear women apart with his bare hands literally. This story is an absolute mess, and I had hoped that Refn would do much better than this.
Like I previously stated, the film looks incredible, with its neon-colored aesthetic, and is scored so beautifully by Pino Donaggio. Still, I feel like Refn wanted to make an avant-garde piece of art cinema with a story and a certain moral or message to it. He absolutely fails in that regard. When this movie ended, I was left frustrated and befuddled about what he exactly wanted to accomplish.
Her Private Hell is in theaters now, and it is a movie I cannot recommend whatsoever. I normally enjoy the type of “swing for the fences” and some avant-garde pieces of art cinema, but Nicolas Winding Refn cannot clearly express whatever message he wishes to express.