Hippopotamus (2018)......before you roll your eyes at the very thought of another "captive girl imprisoned by a sex-starved stalker" movie (not that we'd blame you), here's a new twist on that well worn tale..
The all too typical set up: Ruby (Ingvild Delia) wakes up in a spare concrete room unable to walk.
Her captor Rob, (Jonathon Cobb) explains (repeatedly, as if he's a human spam phone call), that he's cut the ligaments in the back of her legs and will keep her prisoner until she falls in love with him.
Okaaaaayyyy.........good luck with that, Rob.
Usually films that fall into this bizarre, sick little genre follow a predictable trajectory.....(girl ends up dying and her captor lines up the next girl to replace her, or girl outwits her captor by playing on all his deep dark insecurities)
Not this one though, since writer-director Edward A. Palmer has some tricks up his sleeve.
Someone's getting played here sure enough, but it's questionable as to who it is. Ruby? Rob? Or us, the viewers?
Yes, it's entirely possible that Ruby and/or Rob are not what they seem. And as you watch their story unfold, you start to realize that the film really wants to upend all the captor-and-captive tropes. (Have at it, we say....)
Which it does. Rather nicely, turning the film into something other than what it started out to be, yet still remaining strange and disturbing.
We also paid close attention to the last few seconds of the closing shot, which may or may not have brought the story right back to square one.
Or did it?
Intrigued? So were we. And thankfully at 77 minutes, "Hippopotamus" doesn't wear out its welcome trying for an artsy-fartsy vibe. (We dearly appreciate any movie that only runs as long as it needs to be......and doesn't waste a lot of time sucking up to film festival culture-vultures.
3 stars (***) More of an overlong anecdote than a full fledged movie, but independent cinema buffs will definitely find it worth a look.
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