Academy Award winning actor Adrien Brody stars in this 2015 mystery thriller film written and directed by Australian filmmaker Michael Petroni. Having premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last spring and released in the UK just last month, Annenberg Media was given an exclusive look at the film "Backtrack."
Brody plays Peter Bower, a psychologist dealing with the recent death of his daughter Evie. She was tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident while riding her bike along the street. Evie's death, which has caused a strain in his relationship with his wife, has prompted a series of strange and inexplicable occurrences in Peter's professional life, namely the mysterious and unexplained appearance of the young Elizabeth Valentine. When Peter comes to the realization that Elizabeth Valentine — whose initials are eerily resemblant of his deceased daughter's name — along with all of the other patients he's been seeing are not actual patients but ghosts, Peter embarks on an investigation into his past to uncover what ties bind him to this nonrandom group of ghosts, ultimately calling into question the strength of his own memories and the relationships he thought he knew.
The film plays out in a series of distorted flashbacks, marred by the haziness of Peter's repressed memories. Peter's haziness aside, however, the film displays a distinct lack of clarity or causation. As Peter delves deeper into his past, uncovering (or constructing) new memories that contradict his former recollections at every turn, the audience struggles to make the connections between Peter's prior memory and the new one he has suddenly retrieved from repression. The multiple tonal shifts and messy transitions between the constantly altering storylines is prone to give the audience some whiplash, and while the complexity of the layered plot (and the unexpected turn Peter's memories take him) prevents the film from falling prey to the cliched plot of a man haunted by the (literal) ghosts of his past, the viewer can't help but feel as if this is a story that has been told one too many times.
In many ways, the film feels underdeveloped and unfinished; Peter's marriage is only briefly depicted despite his daughter's death being an obvious matter of discord between him and his wife, and his tense relationship with his father (which will later reveal to be a significant factor in Peter's muddled remembrance of his past) is never fully elaborated upon. Ironically, however, Evie's death is only a minor plot point, and seems to serve more as a catalyst for the events that follow than anything else. The overly complicated and complexly structured plot is thus contrasted with the poorly developed character relationships and schizophrenic narrative transitions.
Script deficiencies aside, Petroni does succeed in setting an eerie, ominous tone throughout the movie. With minimal dialogue and a relatively slow-building plot (save for Peter's abrupt recollections of the events of his past), the film relies heavily on a sustained sense of suspense and tension that slowly encroaches upon you, leaving the audience feeling on edge for most of the film. Only when the film branches beyond its thriller genre into horror does it feel artificial and cheap, as the few scares in the film are largely cliched and overdone jump scares with poor makeup and special effects.
Overall, the film offers an interesting take on the supernatural-mystery-psychological-thriller hybrid genre, but fails to deliver a strong enough narrative that compensates for the poorly contrived character and plot developments. And while Adrien Brody delivers a dependably compelling performance as the haunted Peter Bower, the writing failed to provide Brody with a depth that would have truly showcased his acting capabilities.
It wouldn't have hurt for Petroni to "backtrack" a little to simplify his overly contrived supernatural screenplay.
Check out the trailer for "Backtrack" below.
Reach Staff Reporter Jenny Truong here.
Annenberg Media