Release Date – TBC, Cert – TBC, Run-time – 1 hour 47 minutes, Director – Ted Evans
Eva (Anne Zander) arrives at a special community for deaf people, as she becomes more involved in the place Matt (James Joseph Boyle), who has been there since childhood, becomes more disillusioned with it and drawn to the outside world.
As I write this review, F1 has just been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. The speeds travelled at in that film don’t provide nearly the same level of whiplash as the sudden sharpest of left turns that are the tonal shifts in Retreat. There’s a near sense of confusion from them as not only does the horror-tinted drama shift into a thriller but the main character appears to completely change.
Matt (James Joseph Boyle) has spent much of his life in a large communal house for deaf people. Not far from the giant mural of the retreat’s founder holding a child, he’s told early on that he doesn’t “have the trauma or outside experience like we do.” His interest in the outside world grows with the arrival of new member Eva (Anne Zander). Eva makes for our introduction to the world of this community, and the possibly dark goings on in closed rooms, alongside uneasy therapy sessions that eventually see her welcomed in more. In no time at all she’s indoctrinated with barely any questions asked.
However, these more threatening allusions are conflicted with the general tone and behaviour throughout the building that everything is fine, especially from leader Mia (Sophie Stone). Thus, the film eventually, a good deal of the way through, switches to focus on Matt with no real explanation as to why apart from shifting the narrative to focus on something different, too. It means that time has to be taken to start to connect with him more alongside push the new thriller sensibilities that the film has developed.
While making for a bumpy ride with too-sharp turns there’s still a watchable nature to a good deal of Retreat. It has enough to hold interest during its more consistent developments, but consistency throughout the whole run-time is something more difficult to find. The film as a whole appears to hide, or shy away from, its strengths which are largely confined to the background. There’s an interesting film at hand, which the all-deaf primary cast manage to capture rather well. But, the tonal shifts of the narrative step in and lead to very sudden changes that take some getting used to whenever they arrive.
A film that has its elements of threat and darkness, but confines them to the background, Retreat falters by sharply switching character, tone and narrative focus multiple times. While still holding interesting beats it’s a largely watchable yet bumpy ride.
Just A Little Bit Random 