Review of In the Fog (2012) by Edgar C — 19 Apr 2014

In the middle of all the intensity, style and excitement of Tarantino's film, you probably recall an opening scene in Inglourious Basterds which suspense is entirely built on the premise of imminent danger, with a pervasive silence and an excellent evolution of dialogue, which slowly led from one fact to the next, giving us clues of a very probable tragic outcome. In the Fog extends this effect for two hours, and the result is intoxicating.

Such description hints that it requires patience, and indeed it does, but it rewards highly to those willing to listen, and to "see the film between the lines", if we could invent such a phrase to reference the act of reading a book attentively. Slowly showing events with a cinematography mostly consisting in long, unedited shots that create an admirable sense of realism, time passing and danger, In the Fog consolidates Russia's top spot and king status in constructing beautiful introspective and humanist anti-war cinematic letters since the 50s until the 70s during the USSR days, until they acquired a more brutally realistic tone in the 80s.

TINY SPOILERS AHEAD ABOUT THE FILM'S STRUCTURE, NOT REVEALING ANYTHING ABOUT THE PLOT.

The most surprising unexpected characteristic of In the Fog is that it slowly reveals its intentions, showing events first and explaining them later, arriving to a point where a sudden turn of events changes the film's storytelling structure completely: it becomes a roller-coaster, taking the backgrounds of three different characters, each with their own agendas and personal troubles, and telling them separately, until arriving once again to the present. This puts the pieces back together and allows to tie loose ends.

END OF STRUCTURE SPOILERS.

That structure allows for the plot to become meaningful as it unfolds, all of this while an invigorating camera work takes us from scenery to scenery, just like in the old film days of the Soviets: the swamps, the forests, the snowy fields, the battlefields, the houses, the fog... All of these, along with the very slow pace, become natural landscapes dissonant with the atrocities of war. In the meantime, thought-provoking discussions between characters reunited by strange circumstances of fate unravel about the trascendence of death, about the burden soldiers carry with respect to the perception that their fellow countrymen have towards them, about the strength to live despite an evident lack of reasons to keep moving forward, and, just like the plot summary properly describes, the capacity of the human condition to opt for the "morally correct" in the context of "immoral" - more properly, catastrophic - circumstances. Very recommended.

79/100.