Review of Into the Forest (2016) by Spangle — 09 Nov 2016

Patricia Rozema's Into the Forest is just fine as a film, but really does nothing for me. It just felt cold and unwelcoming as a film and one that seemed to try and instill some sort of allegory, but wound up just being a relatively straight forward post-apocalyptic film with a statement about our dependence on technology. Of course, the funny part is that while Rozema tries to critique our use of technology, she has the characters resort to books to survive. That is fine, but certainly seems to defeat the point of naturalism since it is not their own ingenuity.

That said, Into the Forest is quite funny for the first half of the film. The power goes out for a few days and there is no running water so the world turns into chaos where store employees pull guns on shoppers. I do not care what anybody says, that is hilarious. Humanity has descended into chaos merely by this super advanced technology failing. Oddly, the technology shown in the film is not currently available and the film seems to be occurring in the modern day, but I guess not. One of the film's biggest faults is its characters. Both Nell (Ellen Page) and Eva (Evan Rachel Wood) really get no development. They just walk around the home, adjust to living without technology, and fight with each other about how to use the gas. This one of the film's biggest faults and why it often leaves you disconnected. Though I thought Evan Rachel Wood was terrific (especially during and after the harrowing rape scene), Ellen Page was so disconnected. As she was mostly the lead, this really hurt the film. Her character never gets any development and I have no idea who she is, other than she was studying about amnesia before her SAT's (is Ellen Page really still playing high schoolers? Since when is amnesia on the SAT?). Her character's only individual action is to be a whiny baby early in the movie and then a responsible one later, as if she just woke up one day and decided to be a grown up. Oddly, Eva's character does the exact opposite and is mature one day and a wreck because she cannot listen to music the next.

The film is also incredibly politically charged, which really seems to hold it back more. Articulating the battle between technology and naturalism, Into the Forest certainly seems like it tries to be symbolic about how we have to cut our dependence on technology. Yet, the characters solve their problems by reading and then just copying stuff from the books. Seems as though that's a problem solved, no? If technology dies, just go raid the library for books about how to gut animals, right? Based on the movie, that does seem to be the answer.

In other political arenas, Into the Forest seems to try and make a comment on rape culture in America. Yet, the scene does nothing for the film. It just serves to have some weirdo male character from earlier in the film come back and rape one of the characters. I guess the comment there is that if you are weird, you are probably a rapist. In terms of abortion, this is even comes up in the film and Rozema does not shy away from proclaiming her pro-life stance. That is no problem with me, but I did not need this political element in the film. Just have her keep the baby, no need to bring up abortion.

Yet, after all of this complaining, Into the Forest is not that bad. Occasionally thrilling, Into the Forest - when it is focused - is a riveting look at how we would cope with the loss of all infrastructure in an instant. From the paranoia to the rumors to the desperate attempts at survival, Into the Forest is a quality post-apocalyptic film in this arena. Though unoriginal, it is still intriguing enough on its own in this area to stand on its own two feet.

Overall, Into the Forest is an emotionally distant, unfocused, and politically charged post-apocalyptic thriller. When it focuses on its genre though, Into the Forest can often embody the very best of the narrative potential found in the post-apocalyptic world.