The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995)

I love this movie so much

the audience applauded

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I am not sure if this is as good as the 'Reflective Skin' (Amazing film!), but it is definitely very close. Philip Ridley is a brilliant director. He is a true visionary and he managed to get three of the best performances from three of the best actors in Hollywood @ the time i.e. Brendan Frasier, Ashley Judd, and Viggo Mortensen. Very cool movie. Unique, and interesting. It's kind of long, but still extremely weird, and cool, and totally worth the watch.

Brendan Fraser plays the role of a man who has lived under the severe guidance of hyper-religious parents. We slowly get to see him degenerate from a stiff, proper, 'perfect' Christian to a lustful, sexual being, and then into a person who has lost touch with reality completely.The object of his passion is Callie. She tempts him, almost tauntingly, but at the same time obliviously. Her boyfriend, Clay, is played by Viggo Mortensen, in what I suspect is his only NON speaking role.Viggo plays the role of a mute convincingly, showing us another dimension of talent. He uses body language, exaggerated gestures common to the mute, facial expressions, and a couple vocalisations in form of whistles and clicks, or rapping on an object. The vocalisations serve both as attention getters and exclamations to make a point.At the end, after a fight with Darkly (Lee), Viggo's facial expression is the most menacing I have ever seen--and that includes his role in the recent 'History of Violence' Lee meets up with Roxy, part way through. We find out that she is Clay's mum, and holds a grudge against Callie, claiming she is a witch who ruined her family when she was brought into the household much the same way Lee was--an injured stranger.Roxy is so convincing that I honestly expected to find out that Callie truly was a witch (in fact, I'm still not convinced that she ISN'T). Roxy's opinions don't help Lee's sanity any, and in the end, after a discussion with his dead parents, he totally loses it, and sets off to destroy the witch.I was honestly confused by the ending, and am going to have to re-watch it to see if I get it again.In regards to technical aspects-the music was perfectly selected and placed. There were a few instances where the camera used jerky, quick shots, changing angles or scenes (cutting back and forth from Lee to Callie or Clay, e.g.). It was perfectly done-other producers have tried those shots, but I usually end up feeling physically ill from the quick changes. These were just breathtaking.

The Passion of Darkly Noon is an extremely difficult film to describe. For one thing, it doesn't strictly fit any genre, mixing in elements of everything from fantasy to erotica, from thriller to horror. For another, it unfolds in a strange, unconventional and often bewildering fashion. The performances of Brendan Fraser, Ashley Judd and Viggo Mortensen are pretty good, considering that the material they are working with is generally mediocre.The story finds stranger Darkly Noon (Fraser) being found half-dead in the dense forest near to an isolated cabin owned by young lovers Judd and Mortensen. They bring Darkly Noon back to their home and nurse him to health, but he seems to take an unhealthy liking to Judd, participating in all kinds of voyeuristic activities (such as masturbating aggressively whilst spying on her through a peep-hole).The film spends an inordinate amount of time trying to create an oppressive atmosphere. It takes place during an unbearably hot summer, much of the action occurs in an impossibly dense wood, and other scenes take place in claustrophobic nearby caves. Clearly the director wants you to feel and experience the oppressive atmosphere as if you are really there. But although this comes across all too clearly, in spending so much effort setting up the atmosphere the film loses out in other significant areas. The characters and the plot don't evolve in any interesting way and remain disappointingly shallow all the way to the end. The action is separated by long, tedious stretches during which nothing much actually happens. The sexual tension supposedly running through the film is frequently neglected in favour of visual flourishes and yet more atmospherics.The Passion of Darkly Noon may interest those who like the slow-burning Twin Peaks style of drama. As for others, it is not likely to be a memorable experience.

Ahh, Christ! I am so sick of movies like these. You know the type, filled with lots of symbolism that fails to symbolize anything other than the director being more concerned for his reputation as an "artist," than the audience understanding his message or feeling engaged by the story. Some of this symbolism goes to theextremes of being laughable, such as, (PERHAPS A MINOR SPOILER, but idoubt it) a giant, mirrored shoe floating down the river. What's truly worse is this had the potential of being a very interesting drama, as Darkly Noon, a manchild raised in a religiously fanatical household wrestleswith his attraction to married woman, is ruined by the writer/director's self- indulgence. He feels the need to throw lots of shallow ideas at us, hoping we will find him brilliant and ignore that he does not even seem to know what he is trying to say or even how to tell the story. What truly makes me upset is that this is the type of movie brainwashed art- house whores are willing to gravel over self-righteously. They are willing to stand in line like sheep and sing the praises of a movie they don't understand, going on and on about how it goes against the "Evil Hollywood System," thenew catch-all category for everyone who feels like complaining; this complaint has become the equivalent of film-school rejects who do poor work, turn it in late, and when they are given their deservingly terrible grade, scream and holler they are not being understood for the "true artist they really are." That everyone else is just "unsophisticated." Well, Hollywood may give us lots of garbage, but at least they don't wrap their trash in boring, pretensious stabs at meaningdesigned less for thinking audiences and more for self-obsessed "intellectuals," whom like to show off how smart they think they are. If you want a film thatcreates a thoroughly engaging, entertaining, and meaningful drama throughuse of surreal imagery try Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy. Normally, i'm not this mean to a film, but when i get slapped in the face, i feel abliged to return the favor.