Review of Aloft (2014) by Mikael K — 26 Aug 2014

Peruvian filmmaker Claudia Llosa's third full-length feature delves into themes of sorrow, guilt and spirituality with cool lyricism.

"Aloft" works two interconnected storylines set two decades apart. The film opens sometime during the early nineties, in a pigtry where a woman helps deliver a piglet. The woman is Nana Kunning (Jennifer Connelly) a farmer and a mother of two young boys Ivan (Zen McGrath) and Gully (Winta McGrath). Life is hard and every bit as colorless as the arctic the family lives in. Also, Gully is dying. In an opening that is a bit too confusing for its own good but still beautiful, Nana takes her sons and their pet falcon to an event held by Newman (William Shimell), an old mystic who claims to heal with intricate and delicate sculptures built from sticks found in the forest.

A draw settles who among several sick children will receive a miracle. Gully isn't the fortunate one, but as the family's falcon destroys the healing structure in the middle of the woods Nana and the mystic get connected, the old man seeing a power for healing in the sorrowful mother.

A second narrative soon emerges, one set in the current day. Here we meet a grown-up Ivan (Cillian Murphy,) now a dedicated falconer and a recent father. He is approached by a French journalist Jannia (Mélanie Laurent) who is interested in the story of Nana. The duo soon embarks on a mission across arctic icescapes to meet Nana, who we understand is estranged from her son.

The two narratives move forward dynamically, even if there are some issues with the pacing. All the actors do well, but Jennifer Connelly shines above the others with what might well be her best performance to date. Her reserved, ice-cold sorrow chills your bones; rarely do you see inner hollowness portrayed wits such nuanced richness.

Nana's storyline is also the stronger of the two scriptwise. There are a bit too many faults in the script overall. In many cases the actors have to work their best with flat dialog- especially Murphy- but they manage surprisingly well. There is also some immaturity to the way the story is structured. We are presented with mystery as well as revelations, but somehow the seams of the construction show through too clearly.

"Aloft" can be seen as a spiritual, in a way religious film. But I found I could enjoy it even as a sceptic. The metaphysical dimensions of the narrative can be seen as allegory or simply cinematically magical, and Llosa does a good job in inviting the viewer to interpret the film in alternate ways. Cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc of "Rebelle" fame gives the icy vastness of the landscapes an endless, dreamlike melancholy that removes the viewing experience from reality, even as the human drama of the movie feels raw and realistic. Michael Brook's score doesn't hurt with the aesthetics either.

This comes so close to being a perfect film that it's sad to see the script try to escape with so many failings. Llosa is clearly a masterful filmmaker, but she might need to rely on other people's writing in order to become one of the greatest of her generation, a mantle that might well be within her reach.