Review of Couple in a Hole (2016) by Jools A — 06 Jun 2016

COUPLE IN A HOLE does introduce us in its opening to the lives of a Scottish couple who literally inhabits a hole in the forest, putting us in their structured routines where we see the man goes about his daily duties combing the greens of French Pyrenees, hunting and foraging for food, while the wife spends her entire day in their cave taking care of the "house" chores. The mood established in the first frames may even move in an almost documentary trope, but director Tom Geens does not wait too long before he weaves his story into a theme that is slow burning and visual-centric. Whilst we get glimpses of their feral lifestyle including skinning and roasting their own dinners, even eating of worms, displayed in a visual medium that is sparse on dialogue, we will learn that the anchor of the story is in fact isolation and grief. Geens manages to showcase the intensity of his film through a haunting tone as we slowly discover how much the wife, Karen (Kate Dickie) is struggling with reality, while her husband, John (Paul Higgins) patiently cajoles and comforts her. Mourning in desolation has been explored many a times in films, and in this second feature of the Belgian director he's bringing the theme in a manner that is more indie and art house. Both leads manage their roles competently, as they embody the grieving couple in a way that is painful to digest, to a point where Karen's frail physicality starts to turn her into a hunch-back creature-like being (ravaged from her condition of not even able to bring herself to leave the hole), yet somehow relatable in every way we feel for parents who've lost their child.

In a quintessential moment where John finally succeeds to coax his emotionally bruised wife out of the hole to enjoy the rain in the open, marking an important progress of their bereaved journey, a minor accident takes place which triggers a series of incidents which will threaten their domestic landscape which was supposedly structured to help them carry on existing. The lives of another couple, a friendly local from the nearby town, Andre (Je?ro?me Kircher) and his wife (Corinne Masiero), are thrown off the equilibrium as their fate eventually entwines with our titular couple in a tragic way. Not everyone's cup of tea, in its own languid pace the film's emotional undercurrent may not touch certain audience. Personally I found it moving to witness how welded and interdependent John and Karen are emotionally, to a point they can no longer endure as a single entity without one another. Their on-screen chemistry is rather numbing to watch, in a good way, you'd be taken into their retreated lives so devoid of modernity and ability to even feel, you might almost feel that you're habitually connected to the forest as well.