AQUARELA (2019) (B) - This is not much more than a visual think-piece, but this homage to 71 percent of the planet conveys the beauty and power of water in all its forms. Viktor Kossakovsky, as he did more recently with "Gunda," works in a virtually wordless environment, featuring only incidental dialogue and letting the grandeur of his images tell the story.
If it could be said to have any sort of narrative progression, it is that the movie seems to move south, from the Arctic down toward the equator. We see men toiling in the frigid climes somewhere in Russia, retrieving vehicles that have fallen through the winter ice. We visit the streets of Miami ravaged by Hurricane Irma. And in a mirror image of the glacial cliffs featured in the beginning of the film, Kossakovsky gazes upon the epic waterfalls along the coast of Venezuela.
Is this a polemic about climate change? Maybe. Or perhaps it is just an excuse to convey the majesty of the oceans and seas, from the loud cracking of ice floes to the rage of storm squalls. You can see a horse swim and likely the biggest wave -- a wall of water -- you have ever seen. It's all both calming and intimidating and at times fascinating to watch.
HARPOON (B-minus) - This seafaring menage a trois is a bloody, gory mess, both literally and figuratively. It's just a little too cute and cartoonish for its own good, though the story of two men and a woman stranded at sea has some juicy repartee and compelling plot twists.
Emily Tyra is the glue holding this together as Sasha, the woman caught between her smart-ass boyfriend, Richard (Christopher Gray), and his gloomy best pal, Jonah (Munro Chambers), who is suspected of sleeping with Sasha by Richard. Thus the opening scene, in which Richard storms into Jonah's apartment and slugs him. This triggers a call for payback, since Sasha (not so convincingly) insists that the accusation is false.
The trio heads off on Richard's boat for a day trip, but recriminations and double-crosses soon arise, and when the boat's motor dies in the middle of nowhere, this turns into a contest for survival, with no food or water in sight. When Jonah gets one of Chekhov's harpoons shot through his hand, he becomes the weak link and the most likely candidate to be cannibalized.
Yes, this one gets pretty dark, though it never loses its playfulness. Writer-director Rob Grant is comfortable surfing along horror tropes, and he has no fear of crafting an ending in which each character gets a unique comeuppance that just barely makes this worth your 83 minutes.
BONUS TRACK
The "Aquarela" trailer:
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