The Washington Times
  • Subscribe
  • RSS
  • Mobile Headlines
  • e-edition
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • REGISTER
  • LOG IN
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • WELCOME
  • Your Profile
  • Log Out
  • Front Page Image
  • Classifieds
  • Autos
  • Real Estate
  • Jobs
  • Special Sections
  • Customer Service
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Water Cooler
    • Letters
    • Cartoons
    • Books
  • Sports
  • Culture
    • Home & Living
    • Family & Kids
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Washington Visitors
    • Books
    • Auto
    • TV Listings
    • Movie Listings
    • Death Notices
    • Entertainment
  • Communities
  • Rebate Shopping
    • Stores
    • Coupons
    • Daily Double
    • Promotion
    • How It Works
  • Photos
  • Podcasts
    • About Headlines
    • Audio and Radio
    • America's Morning News
  • Politics

    Landmark health care plan passes

  • Politics

    CURL: Bipartisan only in opposition

  • Security

    Navy warns ships about al Qaeda risk near Yemen

  • Politics

    Immigration advocates pressure Obama

  • Investigation

    U.S. Post exec taps former associate for no-bid pact

  • National

    WILLIAMS: Genuine economic stimulus

  • Editorials

    EDITORIAL: GOP senators must give up pork

Friday, May 25, 2007

Watching from the control room

Rate this story

Average 0.00
after 0 votes
Login or register to rate this story

  • Font Size -+
  • Print
  • Email
  • Comment
  • Tweet this!
  • Share
  • Article
  • Comments ()
  • Click-2-Listen

More Stories

  • California cops on alert for booby traps
  • Netanyahu nixes East Jerusalem building curbs
  • Senate rivals in Missouri vie for 'outsider' role
  • Thousands rally on anniversary of Iraq invasion

By

English writer-director Andrea Arnold made her debut feature, "Red Road," largely following the strictures of the Dogme 95 school started by Lars von Trier. Everything is filmed on location; the action is captured with hand-held cameras through natural light; there's little music and no "superficial action." It is a taut piece of filmmaking.

Even with the restraint, "Red Road" manages to be a slowly revealed character study, a tense thriller and a moving drama.

It's also the best film of the year so far.

Jackie (stage actress Kate Dickie in her screen debut) spends her days as a CCTV (closed-circuit television) monitor. From her perch in the City Eye control room, she watches the neighborhoods of Glasgow, alerting police when she sees anything amiss.

Being Big Brother might seem a humorless job, but Jackie takes delight in watching the tender moments of her fellow Scots. Her face lights up as she spies on a cleaning woman dancing in a quiet office building.

Surveillance is about as close as Jackie gets to connecting with other human beings. She doesn't seem to have friends, and the hand wearing a wedding ring doesn't come home at night to hold another. Her irregular trysts with a married man are perfunctory, not passionate.

We slowly come to understand that Jackie is still reeling from some unnamed trauma that's taken her family from her. Seeking comfort, she climbs into bed with two urns of ashes. Even this small pleasure is a source of pain -- her father-in-law is angry that she won't allow the remains to be buried in a spot where everyone can pay their respects.

It's no surprise, then, that Jackie is susceptible to obsession. One night at work, she recognizes a man on camera. He seems to be connected in some way to Jackie's ordeal. She starts out watching him when he appears on her screen, but soon she's switching shifts to follow him, and it's not long before she cannily inserts herself into his life for real.

"I've had this feeling that I've met you before," Clyde (Tony Curran, "The Good German") tells her at the pub. "But I can't work it out."

One of the pleasures of Miss Arnold's fiercely intelligent debut is how her pacing, first luxuriously unhurried, then gripping and swift, draws us into the mystery and keeps us there even after it's all but explained.

12Next »

Post a comment

There are comments on this article, submit your opinion!

Commenting is disabled for this entry.
If you feel there is still something worth mentioning about this entry please contact the author or the site admin.

Top Stories

Most Shared

  1. KUHNER: Impeach the president?
  2. RUSE: The Girl Scout Sex Guide
  3. HANSON: Proud to help -- and to fly our flag
  4. EDITORIAL: Obama surrenders gulf oil to Moscow
  5. EDITORIAL: Democrats' death by suicide
More Top Stories »
  1. BERMAN: Charities behaving badly
  2. EDITORIAL: Hiding the true cost of Obamacare
  3. Lawmaker won't press charges in spitting incident
  4. EDITORIAL: GOP senators must give up pork
  5. ROOT: Outdated union red tape strangles recovery

Most Commented

  1. KUHNER: Impeach the president?
  2. Lawmaker won't press charges in spitting incident
  3. Obama backs plan to legalize illegals
  4. Voight, tea party groups plan last-minute protest
  5. Obama urges Dems to come together for health care
More Top Stories »
  1. Key Democrat Boccieri switches to 'yes' on health vote
  2. Landmark health care plan passes
  3. CURL: Obama the Innocent stumps for health care
  4. Raucous buildup precedes health care vote
  5. EDITORIAL: Democrats' death by suicide

Listen to Washington Times Radio

  • America's Morning News

    with John McCaslin

Blogs & Columns

  • Water Cooler

    Stupak sells out pro-life movement

  • Belief Blog

    Nancy Pelosi invokes the 'wrong' St. Joseph

  • Technology

    Ordering iPad is painless, except for the wallet hit

Advertising Links
TWT Store
  • e-edition
  • Print Edition
  • Weekly Washington Times
TWT Affiliates
  • Middle East Times
  • Golf
  • UPI
  • Arbor Ballroom
  • Washington Times Global
  • About TWT
  • Press Room
  • F.A.Q.
  • Work for TWT
  • Advertise
  • Sponsors
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map

All site contents © Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC.