****
Jon is searching for his big
break in the music industry when he ends up joining a small indie band, fronted
by Frank. Frank is notable not only for his musical vision, but also his
enormous fake head which he never removes. Jon is drawn into his strange world
when the band moves out to a remote woodland cabin in Ireland where they hope
to record their album.
Some critics have labelled this
film a ‘black comedy’ but I would have to disagree – this is a study into the
lives of the band members through the eyes of Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) and, like
in all lives, there are moments of extreme sadness, but also moments of genuine
humour. The quirky humour offsets the tragedies of the film (and there are a
few), but the tone of the film is wholly melancholic rather than darkly comic.
The whole band, and even Jon in the end, is made up of people looking for some
way of expressing how they feel, which is mirrored in their strange, abstract
pieces of music which we witness throughout the film. Although mental illness
is at the heart of the narrative, there are funny moments, such as the tweets
that Jon posts about the band’s progress, and the scene in which Frank ‘spiritually
awakens’ a woman who had come to kick them out of their house. Little snippets
of comedy such as these prevent the film from slipping into complete blackness.
Domhnall Gleeson is excellent as
Jon – he is our emotional gateway into this band of misfits, and he plays it
very well. Jon’s humanity and ambition is easily recognisable, so even when he
is somewhat cruel to Frank at one point, we can empathise with what he is
trying to achieve – fame for the band. Frank is played by Michael Fassbender
who, even though he is mostly hidden by the fake head, gives a very expressive
and emotional performance. We are never able to ‘discover Frank, as it were –
he remains distant to us, much the same as the character of Clara (Maggie
Gyllenhaal), who is apparently threatened by Jon’s appearance in the band. The
music they create gives us some indication of the kind of people they are, but
they remain ultimately unknowable and intangible in their apparent madness. This film kind of loses its way when the band leave their remote shack in the Irish wilderness, and the second half lacks the humour of the first but this helps to hammer home that what Jon is trying to achieve may not be possible.
As you can tell, this is quite a
hard film to describe and it is definitely hard to discuss without giving too
much away. I was engaged throughout but the rather sad concluding scene left me
feeling a little depressed upon leaving the cinema.
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