After Dark Horror Fest 2009: ‘The Broken’

Tom:

Yet another reworking of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, Sean Ellis’s THE BROKEN jettisons all of the sci-fi elements of past versions and focuses on the psychological journey of a single victim. It’s an even slower film than the recent, poorly-received INVASION, but it’s deliberate pace works in it’s favor, generating an impressive amount of suspense. It’s easily the least horrific film in this year’s Horrorfest, but there is a lot to be admire in this classy thriller, including it’s clever twist ending.

Gina McVey (Lena Headey), the beautiful British daughter of an American diplomat (Richard Jenkins) in London, has a loving family, hunky French boyfriend, and fine career as a radiologist. The plot is set in motion at a birthday party for her father when a large mirror inexplicably breaks. The next day Gina is unnerved to glimpse a woman who looks exactly like her. She follows her double to a strange apartment for an off-screen confrontation. While driving back home, Gina has a spectacular slo-mo head-on collision with another vehicle (a crash that is shown again and again throughout the film from different angles, as if there are clues to be found within). Saved by her airbag, Gina recovers but soon has nightmares about her boyfriend and his strange new behavior. She’s convinced he’s not the same person he was and it turns out she’s not the only one in London with twin problems.

THE BROKEN, an incredibly quiet film, overflows with mood, atmosphere, and symbolism. Mirrors shatter left and right as a metaphor for Gina’s shattered mind. It’s a device that could easily be tired and overused in a lesser film, but Ellis somehow makes it seem fresh here. In terms of supernatural elements, it’s an ambiguous film. There’s no mention of “pod people† and there is no attempt to explain the origin of the doppelgangers. The film wisely stays focused on Gina. Lena Headey is at the center of most scenes, and is required to carry the film (her inherent coldness is essential to make the final payoff work).   She does a fine enough job but I think the material is good enough that an A-list actress could have made this a commercial success.

Not everyone will like THE BROKEN. The agonizingly slow build-up will strike some as an exercise in tedium. There are a couple of mildly bloody scenes, but some attending Lionsgate’s Horrorfest may expect more horror and less crafty suspense. For the sake of variety though, this year’s Horrorfest organizers were wise to include THE BROKEN. There are screenings of THE BROKEN at Ronnie’s 20 Cine at 1:00 and 7:40 on Tuesday.

Travis:

‘The Broken’ is one of those movies that start you off with the central character having a seemingly normal day, then at some point something strange happens and we begin to follow the character’s dark journey of discovery that inevitably leads to something mysterious.

Gina McVey (Lena Headey) is a radiologist with a close-knit happy family and and a loving French boyfriend, living in London and working as a successful radiologist. Everything is peachy keen until one day on her way home from work she notices a familiar red Jeep Cherokee pass her by on the street and she swears the person driving the vehicle looked just like her.

This begins Gina’s unnerving experience of following the woman to where she makes a creepy realization. Not long after, with her mind firmly fixated on what she’s witnessed, Gina is distracted and finds herself in a terrible automobile accident. When she awakes in the hospital, she finds she has no recollection of the accident. Gina begins having flashbacks and nightmares, all of which encourage her to rediscover who she is. In the end, Gina regains her knowledge of the truth and is, in dark and eerie way, reborn as an entirely different version of herself.

‘The Broken’ is a dark and compelling mystery that held me in and entertained me, leading to an ending that was only somewhat predictable nearer to the end. Lena Headey did a fine job and Richard Jenkins was great as her father, who has an especially creepy, albeit short, scene with himself. The story (without giving too much away, and that’s hard to do) is sort of a minimalist take on ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ that works because it’s character-driven and not reliant on special effects. As much as I really want to talk about the ending, I can’t. But, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome, even if the entire movie relies on the the twist at the end.

[Overall: 4 stars out of 5]