Unmoored Review
The key to a compelling mystery drama is to have a solid basis for intrigue that either unravels or becomes murkier over time. This is something Caroline Ingvarsson‘s newest film, Unmoored, looks to delve into… but does it succeed in being a good drama with a strong enough mystery at its core?
The film centres around Maria (Mirja Turestedt), a Swedish TV presenter, who heads south with her husband after a series of accusations were made against him. However, an unexpected confrontation forces her to flee to England as her guilt and paranoia grow with each passing day.
There are some things Unmoored does really well. The cinematography is great throughout the entire film, doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to creating a chilling atmosphere. The performances across the film also heighten the tension in specific scenes and do a good job overall. Mirja Turestedt effectively conveys the growing paranoia that Maria is experiencing, and Kris Hitchen, who joins the story later as Mark, is likeable with his calm demeanour, sharing convincing chemistry with Turestedt whenever they appear on screen together.
Unfortunately, that is where the film’s strengths stop. Every intention Unmoored has is good to begin with, and the initial setup for the story and character dynamics feels worn and tense from the start, which is what a film like this needs. However, due to its pacing and structure, nothing is given the appropriate time to breathe.
The palpable sense of unease between Maria and her husband is what drives the first act of the film all the way up to the inciting incident. Once the confrontation occurs, everything else after it can feel either rushed or uneventful. Relationships develop too quickly, whilst plot threads are established and then dropped about two scenes later. If it had just taken its time to let moments sink in, or let a certain theme ruminate for a while, then maybe the story and character journeys could have felt richer by the film’s closing moments.
A lot of what is presented here also isn’t anything new. The brooding messages of domestic/marital struggles that the film opens with could have led to intriguing results, but what follows is pretty standard fare for this genre, which can feel rather disappointing from the audience’s perspective. Even the potential of delving into Maria’s trauma and paranoia is mostly left to Turestedt’s terrific performance, as the filmmaking on display does very little to move that element forward on its own.
There are glimpses of greatness throughout much of Caroline Ingvarsson’s Unmoored, but a lot of that potential is continuously hampered by clichés and a lack of depth to the themes it wants to cover. When the film knows what it’s doing, it can be a good little drama, but it needs to go further in a lot of areas in order to be a truly great bit of mystery thriller filmmaking.
★★ 1/2
In UK cinemas August 15th / Mirja Turestedt, Thomas W. Gabrielsson, Kris Hitchen, Sven Ahlström, Anna Próchniak / Dir: Caroline Ingvarsson / Bulldog / 15
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