A retrospective take on Jane Campion's first film in almost 12 years since I watched it prior to her triumph at the Academy Awards. It is indeed a triumph of direction, with nary a false step. The film itself is intriguing enough, but feels less weighty than one would think coming from such a pedigree. The enigmatic, fractured fashion with which Campion constructed the film, in this case leaving a great deal of information to the imagination rather than showing us exactly what's going on keeps viewers on edge.
Simmering resentment and bottled-up emotions on the brink of bursting forth permeate the runtime and every performance is uniformly strong, particularly an underused Jesse Plemons, whose very presence elicits sympathy. I don't have a great regard for the Oscars these days, but I was pleased Kirsten Dunst was nominated, if only to make up for her Interview with the Vampire snub all those years ago.
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