"Without Name" Is Without Fun
Or, same old, same old.
🍄🍄 (out of 🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄)
Director: Lorcan Finnegan
Screenplay by: Garret Shanley
Cinematographer: Piers McGrail
Starring: Alan McKenna, Niamh Algar, James Browne, Olga Wehrly, Brandon Maher, Morgan C. Jones, Brendan Conroy
I don’t watch it as often as I should, but I’m a fan of slow horror, so I was excited to come across “Without Name.” Unfortunately, while it is indeed a slow burn, the story is an incredibly overdone one, marking this Irish film as just another of many about a middle-aged man’s crash-out over middle age. Only this time, the guy breaks down with the help of shrooms and a gorgeous, yet spooky forest.
Eric is a land surveyor who is married with a teenage son. It’s not a happy marriage or household, so he’s thrilled to get away to do a long job assessing a forest out in the boonies. Joining him is his assistant, a grad student named Olivia, with whom Eric is having an affair. While surveying the land, Eric hears from locals about a man named Devoy. Eric is currently staying in Devoy’s former cottage, and the locals tell him that the man was discovered catatonic and halfway to hypothermia out in the forest and has been in care ever since. Eric also finds a notebook belonging to Devoy that details the man’s theories on how trees and plants can actually talk to people and includes recipes for mushroom teas.
That summary alone should give you a good idea of where this film is going. Shrooms plus creepy woods are rarely a good mix, especially when you toss in ideas about trees and plants talking to you through sign language. While the language of plants is an interesting addition to the story, the rest of it is just so typical and has been done a million times. Seriously, how many movies do we need about a middle-aged guy losing his shit because the woman he’s having an affair with, who is half his age, wants to be something more than a sidepiece, but the guy is scared of change and growth and commitment?
The recycled plotline alone was enough to make the film uninteresting, which is a shame because the cinematography really is gorgeous. The filmmakers played around with perspectives a lot while filming the forest scenes, which added a nice touch. They also had some phenomenal shots in other areas, such as the one where Eric passes out in a chair in the kitchen, and the camera pulls back slowly for the next couple of minutes to set up a long shot looking through the doorframe while the rest of the screen is blacked out. The editing later in the film, when the lines between reality and imagination begin to blur, was fantastic as well, making the fact that the rest of the film was so disappointing even more tragic.
The only likable character in “Without Name” is the guy living in the camper, who seems friendly and laidback. Eric is simply a jerk to everyone he meets (and his loved ones), and poor Olivia is merely there to further Eric’s story. While sometimes terrible characters serve a purpose and can even elicit some sympathy, too often it’s difficult to get invested in a film when the main character is simply awful, and that was definitely the case here.
I dunno. Had the story been something even somewhat original, I probably would have greatly enjoyed this film, but the “been there, done that” nature of it kind of ruined the whole thing. However, if you don’t mind rehashing a story that’s been done a million times, like watching people walk around in the woods while vaguely scary stuff happens, and enjoy slow burns, then you might like this one.