1 amazing gibble out of 5

Director: Xavier Gens

UGH.  Look, I’ll admit I didn’t like Gens’ ‘Frontiers,’* so you can claim that I had a bias going into this, but I still conceptually like ‘Frontiers’ – I like the look of it and… and I like Xavier’s name.  The press that was positive for ‘The Divide’ praised things that worked for me, so I was eager to view.

Alas.  ‘The Divide,’ again, looks good.  Or horrible, but that’s the point.  Gens’ has an eye for making almost everything look as  barrel-bottom as possible – from the lighting to the costumes to the way his characters move around the set, it’s all draped in filth.  Note I say ‘almost,’ for, oddly, a film that could’ve enmeshed itself in a deliciously dirty and detailed set, the basement in which most of this takes place is faceless, maybe over-shadowed by the gutter-punk principles but maybe because the set is about as stereotypical move basement as it gets, stocked with rooms and props only when it works for the movie but otherwise just drab.

This mishmash of notably disgusting visuals lumped into a “faceless” environment existed in ‘Frontiers’ as well, where a war-torn France was a mess of wandering plot and fires burning, but at least there the focus was on the experience and not on the characters.  It didn’t hit home, but because no one was trying to say or do anything too poignant, you could appreciate the feeling of dreck.  ‘The Divide,’ unfortunately, wants to be about SOMETHING and it’s fucking SERIOUS and we’re all about CHARACTER INTERACTION, so those visuals just become a pretentious art school fuck layer that makes the HEAVY, IMPORTANT dialogue that much harder to swallow when pissed from the mouths of these rat-bastard characters – none of whom is likable, all of whom are empty and predictable from frame 1.

*ahem*

Here’s the plot: A character is watching out a window when some kind of bomb hits the nearby city.  Next shot is a lot of people running around an apartment building trying to find haven, and then a small scattering of people who get locked in the basement / fallout shelter with Michael Biehn.  Cue every Lord of the Flies / paranoia stereotype with extra yelling, extra obviousness, and extra swear words all from the get-go – the alpha males pronounce themselves as leaders and challenge each other; the strong, silent boy and girl pseudo-leads act logical and calming, there’s a slut, there’s a nervous boy.  Several people locked in a room and they turn to bickering and fighting and killing each other.

It’s not that these stereotypes are unacceptable, and it’s not that the degradation of individuals in a group dynamic can’t still be used for interesting film fodder – it’s all in the execution.  While I’ll accept that it could’ve been an interesting move to stage all of the pre-bomb stuff before the movie proper begins such that hackles are already raised, and thus it’s feasible that everyone would respond as instantly annoying and stupidly as they do in ‘The Divide’ – within minutes of being locked in – it is, again, all in the execution.  And perhaps there’s a language barrier between director and actors, but there’s not a moment unplagued by over-acting or grossly unbelievable instant shifts in the group dynamic.  Tension can, actually, be created in 90 minutes.

This is to say nothing of the fact that the isolation aspect is botched thanks to some plot fiddling with what’s beyond the door.  Again, potentially interesting to include some answers to the mystery early on, but the way it’s handled here is just another page in the video game post-apocalyptic film handbook.

Gens’ has some interesting visuals.  One day he may realize a true connection between his disturbing visuals and a story (Yes, I will reference ‘Martyrs’ as an example of this because I loved that film), but ‘The Divide’ insults on all levels for its desperate need to shout – using a string of profanity – that it wants to be the best new thing, and it’s willing to degrade itself to do so.  It looks okay enough in that dress, but I’ll pass all the same, thank you.

*I forget to add those fun parenthesis to “Frontier(s)” ….like so…. throughout this review.  This asterisk is to remind you that you can eat my poo.

"Every time we do something predictable, an angel gets its wings."