A young woman sees a way out of her abusive relationship with the
unexpected arrival of a holidaying couple.
Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Stuart Gatt
Starring: Erin Moriarty, Dina Shihabi, Jai Courtney, Ryan Corr
It may be the work of a British writer/director and filmed in the
Canary Islands rather than its actual Texas setting, but Catching Dust has a setup straight out of classic American drama. Featuring
just four characters divided into two couples housed in trailers in a
deserted patch of desert, it initially suggests Sam Shepard but soon
reveals itself as dramatic mutton dressed as lamb, its intriguing
dynamic failing to hold our attention thanks to a clunky and contrived
script.
Seemingly on the run from a figure known as "Copperhead", Clyde (Jai Courtney) and Geena (Erin Moriarty) have pitched up in a trailer in what
was once a thriving desert commune but now is simply deserted. Clyde
occupies himself by hunting and tending to his small vegetable patch,
but Geena struggles to fill her days, keeping her hobby of sketching her
surrounds a secret from Clyde. There's a suggestion that Clyde was once
physically abusive to Geena, and we see how he struggles to conceal his
temper when the couple argues. When Geena threatens to leave, Clyde puts
his hand on her throat before storming off.
Things seem to look up for Geena with the unexpected arrival of Amaya
(Dina Shihabi) and Andy (Ryan Corr), a married couple who
have travelled all the way from New York with a fancy trailer bigger
than most apartments. Mistakenly believing the commune is still active,
the city slickers are shocked to find the barren situation that greets
them, but with their driver having left and no cellphone reception,
they're stuck there for 20 days.
Geena is welcoming of some new company and is delighted to learn Andy
teaches art classes back in the city. Impressed by Geena's sketches (or
at least claiming so), Andy starts giving Geena lessons in abstract
expressionism (Geena unsubtly smears a canvas with blood red paint).
Clyde is none too happy with the arrival of interlopers and immediately
makes an enemy of Amaya when he refuses to allow her a corner of his
vegetable patch for her beloved plants. Amaya grows suspicious of Andy
and Geena's friendship. Geena begins conspiring to use the couple as a
way out of her predicament. Clyde increasingly fumes, his face
resembling sunburnt skin wrapped around a pressure cooker.
We're left to wonder what a great American dramatist like Tennessee
Williams, Robert Sherwood or the aforementioned Shepard might make of
this scenario with all its potential for sweaty psycho-sexual tension
under the scorching SouthWest sun. British writer/director Stuart Gatt can't figure out what dramatic moves to make once his pieces are
assembled on the board. Practically every new plot development is
contrived, and the various twists often rely on characters behaving in a
way that just doesn't make sense. I could forgive one character behaving
like a schizophrenic, but not all four. Everyone here changes their mind
more times than a middle class wife trying to settle on what dress to
wear to dinner. A final reveal comes off as frankly ridiculous, asking
us to believe a character did something ludicrously daft.
Gatt's depiction of American urbanites versus rednecks suggests no more
research than watching some sitcoms. Yet while his pairs of protagonists
both fall into stereotypical camps - the urbanites sophisticated and
cultured, the rednecks monosyllabic and emotional - Gatt does at least
refrain from the usual cliché of making the city dwellers the heroes and
the yokels the villains. Everyone here is unlikable to some degree
(they're all guilty of engaging in manipulative behaviour) while
simultaneously sympathetic. In Amaya and Andy's debate over whether to
interject in Clyde and Geena's obviously problematic relationship, we
get an interesting distillation of the classic white liberal dilemma of
whether to be a saviour or to follow the Star Trek prime directive and
avoid interfering with other cultures.
The acting is a mixed bag. The stone-faced Moriarty is miscast in a
role that requires an actress more naturally capable of displaying
vulnerability, and Corr is lumbered with a poorly defined character.
Faring better are Courtney and Shihabi (romantic partners offscreen),
who manage to cut through the clunky dialogue and baffling character
turns to convey two very different people burdened with a similar
pain.
Gatt fails to convince as a writer but impresses somewhat as a
director, constantly finding new ways to visually enliven his film's
barren setting, and the 35mm cinematography of Aurélien Marra captures the heat and dust of the location. The film's biggest
misstep might be the misjudged message it sends regarding how women
should indulge toxic behaviour from their male partners who ultimately
know what's best for them, and Gatt's attempts to make us empathise with
an objectively awful man won't play well in the current climate.
Catching Dust is on UK/ROI VOD
from January 20th.
