Dark River Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Dark River Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 25, 2019

Dark River is an often riveting mood piece, one which deals with a number of dysfunctions in a Yorkshire family, which may call into question why the film kind of unexpectedly lurches over into near Grand Guignol territory late in its third act. In a rather commendable model of narrative exposition brevity, Dark River writer and director Clio Barnard quickly establishes a number of issues surrounding focal character Alice Bell (Ruth Wilson). Alice is seen in a sheep shearing operation as the film opens, and from comments directed at her by her assumed superior, it sounds like she’s well liked and expected back for the next shearing season, but Alice announces that her father has just died and left her his "tenancy" of the family farm, while also mentioning it’s been 15 years since she’s been back home. (The whole "tenancy" aspect, one which was frankly unfamiliar to me and I suspect will be to any number of other United States viewers, might conceivably have benefited from a bit more explanation.) That sets in motion a number of developments which might be more or less aptly summed up with the famous aphorism "you can't go home again", or at least some version of that statement that indicates that while you may indeed be able to return home, things will not be the same and there may well be ghosts haunting your memory one way or the other.

Alice arrives at the isolated family farm to discover it’s in a horrible state of disrepair and that her estranged brother Joe (Mark Stanley) is nowhere to be found. As troubling as the exigencies of the current state of affairs are, Alice is perhaps even more troubled by memories of her father (Sean Bean), and it’s more or less instantly obvious that Alice suffered from years of sexual abuse at his hands. When Joe eventually does show up, it's more or less instantly obvious again that the relationship between the siblings is fraught with memories of their childhood, a situation compounded by the fact that Joe does not want Alice to assume the tenancy, instead preferring to sell of the rights for a considerable sum.

That sets up a cascading series of events that tends to play out in small scale skirmishes built around a rather primitive rural setting that reminded me in a way of a similarly rustic farm environment in Vincent Ward’s interesting 1982 film Vigil. Much like Ward’s film, Dark River charts the emotional course of a female while offering at times kind of languid looks at the actual physical environment, some of which tends to, in true Romantic (capital R) fashion, reflect the inner turmoil of the characters existing in it. All of this is handled with some visceral intensity, despite some tamped down (dissociative?) emotions, but Dark River tips over into something a bit more unexpectedly sinister in its endgame, albeit all within the context of Alice's roiling psyche.

Memories keep intruding, keeping Alice off kilter, but the film may rely on a bit too much constant trauma for its own good. It's obvious that Alice has had a series of horrifying incidents scattered throughout her childhood and adolescence, but the film approaches them from an understandably fractured standpoint, as little snippets of memory intrude. That structural conceit is actually emotionally accurate feeling in a very real way, but some of the material disclosed in this manner has a foregone conclusion aspect that makes "getting there" even more of a trial than the actual content already creates.

What ultimately may sink Dark River (no pun intended for a variety of reasons), though, is a late development involving a guy who wants to buy the siblings' rights to the land (again, I'm not feeling completely conversant with the legalities being addressed here, which are probably not similar to but still kinda sorta reminded me of the whole entailment angle of Downton Abbey). That leads to a rather shocking denouement which is followed by a coda of apparent reconciliation that may strike some as weirdly artificial feeling, especially after some of the intense aspects that have come before it.

Still, Dark River is often a visually arresting film that features an impressive, if probably unavoidably one note, performance by Ruth Wilson. Barnard admittedly does afford the character of Alice brief respites of relative peace (and it’s interesting to note the quiet joy that’s on Alice’s face as she first gets to the family farm), but the film kind of wallows in a morose quality that may strike some as burdensome after a while. The organic unity of humans and countryside in this film is rather redolent of works by Thomas Hardy, or at least was so to me, and there's the same inexorable movement of fatalistic events playing out here that often inform Hardy's novels as well.

Dark River Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dark River is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FilmRise with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Digitally captured with Arri Alexa cameras and presumably finished at a 2K DI, this is a fairly bleak, wintry looking enterprise that may not offer a lot of "pop" in terms of bright colors (with a couple of notable exceptions, including some of the early moments as seen in screenshot 4), but which really creates a very visceral mood. Misty grays and greens are prevalent throughout the presentation, and while some of the exterior footage is unavoidably hazy looking, simply due to the weather, detail levels are often very good, especially since Barnard and cinematographer Adriano Goldman like to feature extreme close-ups of faces forward in the frame, with slightly out of focus rural scenes playing out in the background. Fine detail on things like the bristly wool of some of the sheep is also precise looking. There are several key scenes which play out in near darkness, and detail levels in those moments understandably lessen.

Dark River Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As I've been mentioning in the recent glut of FilmRise releases, the label is still matriculating into "real" pressed Blu-ray offerings, and hasn't yet made the jump to lossless audio, and so this is another FilmRise product with only lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mixes. The surround mix has consistent surround activity courtesy of the wealth of outdoor material, where ambient environmental sounds frequently dot the side and rear channels. A recurrent sequence featuring a swimming hole and waterfall also offers some nice surround activity. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. My score reflects an adequate sounding track that still could have benefited from being offered in a lossless format.

Dark River Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 2:04)

Dark River Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dark River is a definite showcase for the appealing Ruth Wilson, who does outstanding work here. The variety of performers otherwise associated with Game of Thrones may actually initially draw more curious viewers, though, and for them it's best to state up front that Sean Bean in particular only has what might be termed a glorified cameo. Not everything about Dark River hangs together perfectly well, and it's often a "tough" watch anyway for a variety of reasons, but it offers a really interesting look at a rural lifestyle that may seem positively alien to those raised mostly in urban environments. The sibling relationship depicted is a veritable minefield, which may feel more "relevant" to anyone with brothers or sisters. Video quality is fine, if occasionally soft and murky, but FilmRise should upgrade to lossless audio on its Blu-ray releases.