Couple in a Hole (2016)

Simply Perfect

Great Film overall

The acting in this movie is really good.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I don't know what I just watched. Couple loses son, mom is traumatized after the fact and refuses to leave a spot where she feels his presence and dad can't leave mom. There were so many details left out of this and it moved so slow that I almost stopped watching it a few times. I hung in there hoping the end would be worthwhile but I was disappointed. Not something that I'll ever watch again.

Firstly a love Thinky films 'the straight story' 'Remember' slow thoughtful and let's say deep.I wanted to know more about the couples history what makes a couple act some extreme? But this did not leave me thinking. Actually it left me within seconds. The concept was good (well it could have been) but a film in bits is not good unless it comes together. I felt after watching it to the end. Nothing.. Except she looked like an ill Cate Blanchett.. and why the Fire and The Boar ? And the other couple ? If someone throws a rock at you I want to know why ? I gave it a 3 because the actors gave their all, But it's not a film id tell someone to watch, which to me is important.

There are marketing companies who would charge you the price of a Jordan Belfort house party to come up with the best name for a movie. 'You need something smart' they would WhatsApp you from the break out canoe in their Shoreditch offices, 'Relevant', 'Sophisticated', 'Serene', 'Something virtual for the Millennials'. But you know what? If you've got a film about a couple living in a hole, save the budget and the BS and just call the bloody thing what it is.Couple in a Hole, as you may have partially gathered by now, is about a couple living in a hole in the woods somewhere in rural France. The two are introduced during daily activities; John (Higgins), the hunter gatherer of the pair catching and skinning a hapless bunny for the pot, and Karen (Dickie), sitting in the hole stitching together furs into a rather fetching but doubtfully PETA approved patchwork blanket.On a rare excursion from the hole, Karen gets bitten by a spider and becomes ill, forcing John to travel into town for medication. Here he meets Andre (Kircher), the gentle local chemist who asks how they are getting on in the wood. It is at this point, with John telling Andre he has plenty of money and doesn't need charity, that you realise the couples living accommodations are of their choosing. The key question then simply becomes 'why?'. Why are they living in a hole? Why are they so close to town? Why is Karen so utterly afraid of the world? The rest of the films sole purpose is to gradually tease these answers out.Aside from the mysterious particulars of the living arrangements, the most engaging part about Couple in a Hole is the contradicting needs of the couple and the discord they create; Johns jovial persona longing for alternative company and Karen's obsession with locking herself away from the dread of the outside world. Dickie plays the agoraphobic Karen to perfection. Her complete regression from life and emaciated appearance are startling, the occasional panicked emergence from the hole is breath-holding material. Higgins is perfectly cast as the friendly but uncompromisingly loyal and protective John, his friendly intelligence keeping the course of the plot credible and preventing things becoming too gloomy.Why, oh, why then Geens decided to end the film as he did only he will ever know. After being lovingly snuggled in the fur-lined blanket of Paul's progression and Karen's regression for an hour and a half, the last thing you would expect is the ending you unfortunately receive. It feels flustered, freaky and unrealistic (an impressive feat for a film about two Scottish people living in a hole in France) and undoes a lot of what has come before.Couple in a Hole works far better than it perhaps should and productions of such limited budget and scope should always be applauded. Although flawed in places and with that terrible ending, it is for the most part a legitimately enjoyable and captivating outing.

This film moved me. Powerful silence, actions and way of telling this story. It unfolds perfectly, like in a real life event, not some Hollywood garbage that is fed to people, creating this whole fake generation. I am not a person that knows the review speak, so ten lines is a stretch for me, I don't read reviews that are longer than about the same amount of lines, I want to watch and experience a film for myself, not read a book about how another person perceived every detail.A basic outline is enough. This film is like a snowball, ending in the most unexpected way, yet throughout the film, there were glimmers of indication, if one is perceptive to such things of course. I really enjoyed the journey, there is a melancholic feel to this, that is the closest to a spoiler you will get from me.