Orizzonti review - MAN DOWN by Dito Montiel

A family drama and war thriller with post-apocalyptic elements. DITO MONTIEL's latest film had its world premiere in the ORIZZONTI section of the 72nd VENICE FILM FESTIVAL.

MAN DOWN exists on three different parallel narrative genres; one is the war thriller complete with one on one investigation, the other is the family drama and the third from airs of the post apocalyptic genre. Taken separately, these three are not featured with any significant originality, but together they form an intuitive and exciting mix that is perhaps watered down in its duration, but unexpectedly leads to a drastic twist that will possibly awaken the interest of even its most alienated viewer. 

Despite the afore mentioned mix, essentially DITO MONTIEL's latest feature is the story of a father looking for his kid in a crazy world after he returns from the horrors of the war in Afghanistan, and as the story progresses it becomes more and more fuelled by paranoia in which we increasingly question the nature of its reality. 

The father is played by SHIA LEBEOUF, an actor who, in recent times or perhaps for longer than we can bare to remember, has been featured more in the press for debauchery and eccentric off screen shenanigans than actual praise worthy performances. In MAN DOWN, he mostly mostly remains toned down, and appropriately so given the madness that surrounds his character and the intricate structure with which the story continues, a storyline that sharply shifts tones and systematically jumbles up its chronological order in favour of a more enigmatic structure. 

This SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5 like structure however, is an underwhelming aspect of the film, as it eventually becomes repetitive, particularly in the interrogation sequence in which a strangely uninterested GARY OLDMAN keeps repeating the same question about an "incident" to a bewildered SHIA LEBEOUF who timely replies with loose and wordy answers, confused, unfocused and all in all downright frustrating.

Among the films that MAN DOWN seems to be a descendant of is JACOB'S LADDER, but the mystery and even horror aspects of its tale is considerably reduced here and toned down in order to achieve a more rewarding examination of the human condition and human aspect of the story. While there is nothing particularly new about the family drama, which even feels auto piloted, it is all necessary in the scheme of things and in sight of the sudden sharp twist that takes place in the final third of the film, most of it can be forgiven. 

The use of music is a little too unusually cheesy and gets in the way of the darkness of the plot, but playing around with the energy of each individual sequence can also be spotted as a way for MONTIEL to manipulate the cliche elements of his narrative as well as the way in which they are regularly portrayed on the big screen.