Rating (2.5 out of 5)
Another Netflix movie with talented actors, but fails to deliver unless of course you like dark dreary dramas where you hope everyone dies.
Plot: Russell Core (Jeffery Wright) is asked by a mom Medora (Riley Keough) to help track the wolf which has taken her son while her husband Vernon (Alexander Skarsgård) is at war in Iraq.
What I Liked: The pictures of Alaska (Canada actually) were nice.
The idea of the mask representing a change in the person, allowing them to become something intrigued me. However, the theme died there and the mask became an interesting prop instead of a powerful tool.
The movie kept serving enough action and deaths, enticing us to watch for the final resolution. All you receive for your time, is placid resolution leaving the viewer disappointed.
What I Didn’t Like: All the characters are just sad, sad people. Russell is a sad sack. Medora is a sad sack. Vernon has anger issues. His friend Cheeon is a sad sack with anger issues. Who is the hero? Which character are we to form an emotional connection? The answer is no one, just all die already.
Commit to the mysticism or don’t. Hold the Dark lies in the middle ground mystical and psychotic and therefore you are left wondering why everything happened.
Conclusion: I am sure some deep underlying message existed but I missed the message in all the sadness and death. Yes I picked up the parallel with the wolves but we wanted more. When Hold the Dark ended, I felt disappointed, like wrapping yourself giant wet blanket.
I don’t enjoy missing a movie’s message, so I had to do some research what I missed. Hold the Dark is based on a book, and there details which are hinted at, but not disclosed explicitly, which would explain so much about the movie. The director chose to hint at about the details and really the hints were so subtle, you would have to watch the film a few times to pickup on them.