Review of Upstream Color (2013) by Jacob G — 01 Aug 2014

I'm not really sure what I just saw to be honest with you. Is it that Upstream Color is simply to smart of a film for me? Or did Carruth error too far on the side of ambiguity?

While the visual poetry shines through, as does various plot elements, a large portion of the film hints at something it expects the audience to comprehend. But I can't comprehend it.

The initial setup is great: using a special worm that seems to induce an extended hypnotic state, a man is able to have the victim give him all their money, burning every financial stream in the process.

They wake up months (or more?) later completely unaware of what happened.

Given that quick introductory synopsis it would be natural to assume that Upstream Color is about trying to find the man that did this to our protagonist and her attempts to return order to her life.

But that's not what director Shane Carruth does.

In fact, I'm not exactly sure what Carruth does. Our protagonist undergoes a bit of a personality change. Not that we saw much pre-hypnosis, but enough to sort of see the kind of pep she had before. But it's hard to tell if that is depression over her situation or (more likely) residual effects from her hypnotic imprisonment.

And so the movie traces this through a budding relationship.

Which should be all fine and dandy. We'd see the ups and downs of the relationship, then learn why things are so crazy between them. Again, not what Carruth does.

Interspersed with their confusing relationship is long scenes of an older man and his fascination with recording sounds, and pigs. Yeah, I don't know what they mean.

The ending is vaguely satisfying. It will either confirm a few things you suspected, or illuminate a few "wow!" points if you failed to pick up on them previously. But it certainly doesn't go and hold your hand to explain everything. So there is definitely a sense of befuddlement, even as the credits play.

And to add to the befuddlement, it's never entirely clear how much we (as a viewer) should be trusting anything we see. What if the whole thing is a hypnotically-induced fantasy? Credits roll and the perpetrator is still in charge. Or, what if none of it was hypnosis to begin with? The possibilities are endless when presented with an unreliable situation like this, particularly when the filming style takes on such symbolic, dreamlike qualities.