I hadn’t heard of this film until it was brought to my attention by a friend and when I checked out the trailer I only had one question: when can I see this movie? From the short preview, I saw I had already determined that I was going to love Enys Men. Of course, that is a dangerous gamble, I’m often fooled by good trailers. What seeing the clip actually did was open up memories of all the movies I’ve watched from the 70s; the visuals, the camera moves, the way the film was edited, everything about it screamed, “you’re about to be transported!” – and I was right.
As the movie began I was immediately struck with how beautiful everything was, the color was amazing. The location, though isolated, was gorgeous. The film starts with our main player, Mary Woodvine (the volunteer) doing her rounds on the island. She checks multiple things like the growth of specific flowers and seemingly how deep a well might be by dropping down a stone. Everything she does is meticulously notated in a journal she has in the house she keeps on the island.
It appears that every day is basically the same as the film goes on, every day in April she is charting the changes to the flowers and every day she writes, “no change”. This continues, day after day until finally, something is different. The change in the flower signaled a change in tone of the film as well. Strange things begin to happen and the volunteer slowly begins to question her reality. All of this leads to a chaotic final thirty minutes where many of the questions that we had, start to get answered all while forcing us to ask new ones. It was expertly done.
What Enys Men got right
The biggest thing that this movie and writer and director Mark Jenkin (Bait) got right is the style and tone. This movie takes place in 1973 and everything about it screams 1973. If you watched this film and I told you it was released in theaters in 1973 you would 1,000% believe me. The look of the film, the angles, the edits, the grain, the music, literally every little piece was put in place to sell this as the 70s. It succeeds and is pretty impressive.
This film is also an exercise in isolation and it sells that very well by having long takes where little is happening and letting us just sit with the scene. There are a lot of directors out there that would trim those scenes, not brave enough to get their point across. It never seems excessive, it’s always clear what Jenkin is trying to accomplish even when I’m waiting patiently to see what’s going to happen next.
The thing I want to highlight most (even though the acting, the sound, the music, everything is on point) is the cinematography. This film is absolutely beautifully shot. The colors pop off the screen, and there are times when it looks like a painting and I think, “oh, this is pretty, wait, why is that woman on the roof?”. Because not everything needs a closeup, they gave us the trust and the ability to find the things they were trying to show us on our own. It really is a work of art in every way. This is definitely one of the fabled, “those movies”.
What Enys Men got wrong
There isn’t a lot I can complain about here, I really enjoyed this movie (if you couldn’t tell) but one thing I can gripe about is, I hadn’t heard of it. This movie is fantastic and I know it made a splash on the festival circuit so my complaining about a lack of marketing is really pulling any thread in order to file a complaint. That said, I feel like this movie deserved a push. It’s something I often find with really amazing independent films, they fly under the radar due to a lack of marketing. Yes, independent film lovers will find these kinds of movies but some of them could be loved by a wider audience.
Also, this is just me being super picky because I really don’t have any other complaints, they never told us that Enys Men means “stone island” in Cornish. It makes sense because the volunteer is stuck on a stone island for the duration of the movie but I really thought it referenced the men in the mine in some way. That isn’t on the filmmakers, it’s on me for not knowing so as I said, this is a weak complaint. Pay me no mind.
Conclusion:
This movie was clearly made by someone who loves cinema for people who love cinema. The story isn’t straightforward and can be confusing at times if you don’t pay attention. That isn’t a criticism, this is a piece of art that really deserves to be watched as such. The attention to detail is ridiculous, everything they set out to do it seems, they were able to do, and if they didn’t, no one can tell.
Thinking about it, this is probably my favorite movie of this year so far, in a year that has already blown my mind multiple times. The way it tells its story, the past and the present concurrently, is something I really liked. I wasn’t sure that’s what it was doing until I was, then I applauded. Enys Men is like if the cursed tape from The Ring was a feature-length psychological horror story. I mean this as a gigantic compliment, I was all in on this one.
As I say every time about indie films, you really need to watch this and support the artists but more than that you need to tell as many people as you can about it if you liked it. Some films aren’t able to spend millions of dollars on 60-second television ads and it’s up to real movie lovers to get the word out. Enys Men is worth your time.
Enys Men will be released on March 31, 2023!
Watch Enys Men
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