RESIN (2019 - Danish)

Studio:      Zentropa Productions
Director:    Daniel Borgman
Writer:      Bo Hr. Hansen
Producer:  Katja Adomeit, Peter Aalbaek Jensen
Stars:     Vivelill Sogaard Holm, Peter Plaugborg, Sofie Grabol, Ghita Norby, Amanda Collin

Review Score:

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Summary:

Raised in seclusion by paranoid parents, a young hermit begins believing the outside world may not be as dangerous as she was taught.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Paranoid hermit Jens Haarder fakes the drowning death of his daughter Liv so he and his wife Maria, who becomes bedridden from morbid obesity, can secretly raise Liv in seclusion. Over the course of many summers, Jens teaches Liv how to live off the land, which includes using tree resin to treat Maria’s wounds. Jens forces Liv to hide in a shipping container whenever someone comes by their dilapidated woodland home on a remote island.

While her father skins a rabbit for food, Liv asks where the animal’s soul is. Jens claims the soul is in the heart.

At night, Liv secretly sneaks into town to steal supplies from Roald, a bartender and innkeeper still mourning the death of her daughter. When a stolen bracelet reveals Liv ventured away from home, Jens angrily warns his daughter that people cannot be trusted and their toxic world must be avoided at all costs.

Unaware that her granddaughter supposedly died, Jens’ estranged mother Else comes to town in advance of an unannounced visit for Liv’s birthday. Lars, a regular at Roald’s bar who has a history of trying to bring down Jens, repeats disparaging stories about the unusual way Jens’ family lives.

After surveying Jens’ hoarder-like house, Else assesses her son’s situation as ludicrous. Else asks why Jens faked Liv’s death. Jens responds that someone reported he and Maria as unfit parents and he worried Liv would be taken away.

Else insists on summoning a doctor when she discovers Maria is pregnant. Jens counters that he treats his wife with resin.

Worried she will bring authorities to their home, Maria tells Jens to make Else leave. Liv watches as Jens strangles Else.

Roald speaks to a police officer about the break-ins at her inn. Lars uses the opportunity to report that Else never returned from the island. The officer explains he cannot investigate Jens’ home on an unsubstantiated suspicion.

Jens gifts Liv with a new hunting bow for her birthday. Liv also unwraps a watch that Else brought her, but Jens warns that Liv should not have the ability to control time.

Liv notices her father becoming more erratic in the wake of murdering his mother. Maria blames herself for Else’s death while claiming their family has become cursed.

Maria gives birth to a stillborn baby. Liv names the dead child Karl after Jens’ father. Although Maria believes the boy will be cremated, Liv watches as Jens begins mummifying the baby by removing its organs and embalming it with resin so Karl can be with them forever. The subject of souls comes up again as Jens removes the baby’s heart.

Roald finds Liv’s footprints in her kitchen again. Recognizing them as belonging to a little girl, Roald breaks down sobbing.

Maria falls ill. Jens continues growing unstable as he rants about not having clean bandages for wrapping Karl’s body.

Liv sneaks into Roald’s place to steal bandages. Roald catches Liv. Liv stabs Roald in her leg to escape. Roald limps after Liv as she flees back home.

Maria tells Liv she needs a doctor. Liv repeats Maria’s request to Jens, but he warns doctors would take Maria away. Jens stops Liv when she moves to go for help herself.

With the police unwilling to act, Lars comes to the house to investigate Else’s disappearance. Jens kills Lars.

Liv tells her father what happened in town when she sees that Roald followed her home. Jens locks Liv in the shipping container and drives away to avoid Roald.

Roald finds Maria collapsed on her bedroom floor. Maria warns Roald that her husband is dangerous and asks her to save Liv. Having escaped the container, Liv captures Roald. Jens returns. Roald pleads that Maria needs medical attention. Jens and Liv leave Roald trapped outside while they check on Maria.

Maria dies in front of Jens and Liv. Blaming him for Maria’s death, Liv fights her father. Having escaped her restraint, Roald arrives to help Liv. Jens starts strangling Roald. Liv uses her new bow to shoot an arrow into her father.

With his dying words, Jens apologizes to Liv and tells her to go with Roald. Jens dies while embracing Maria’s body.

Recognizing that she will love and care for her, Liv leaves with Roald. However, Liv goes back and cuts out her parents’ hearts to take with her. Liv then sets fire to the house.

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Review:

Jens just wants his family to be left alone. Effectively alienated already, the scant citizens of a small seaside town grant the hermit’s wish for solitude in the wake of a terrible tragedy. His young daughter Liv died by drowning. Now Jens and his wife Maria have more reason to retreat as far as possible from civilization.

Except Liv didn’t really die. Convinced other people cannot be trusted, Jens and Maria chose to shelter Liv from the toxicity of the outside world. Living in a dilapidated woodland home that could feature on “Hoarders: Isolated Island Edition,” Jens spends several summers teaching his daughter how to live off the land while warning her to be wary of interlopers who cannot know she exists.

With Maria bedridden from morbid obesity, Liv takes to conducting secret supply runs in the night. Jens has no initial idea Liv regularly rifles through a grieving innkeeper’s cupboards. When he finds out, Jens adamantly insists his daughter must not risk coming into contact with the world’s wickedness. However, Liv is of an age when instinctive inquisitiveness causes her to question how much faith to keep putting into her alarmist father’s skewed worldview.

The collision course between overprotective devotion and adolescent wanderlust accelerates when an unexpected visitor arrives. Meanwhile, Maria isn’t only falling increasingly ill. She’s unexpectedly pregnant, and desperately needs a doctor. With each complication piling onto his paranoia, Jens’ melting mind approaches a tipping point that threatens to finally expose the truth about Liv’s life in seclusion.

Director Daniel Borgman’s Danish-language dramatic thriller “Resin” adapts author Ane Riel’s international bestseller “Harpiks.” The book’s back cover ambiguously, yet aptly, describes it as “the story of what can happen when you love someone too much – when your desire to keep them safe becomes the one thing that could irrevocably harm them.” A front cover pull quote adds, “an extraordinary atmospheric study of obsession and possessive love.”

Translated into two-word terms specifically applicable to the film, “Resin” can be described with common cinema phrases that are turn-ons for some, but turn-offs to others. Slow burn. Arthouse atmosphere. Character study. Intra-personally interpretive. That’s surprisingly sufficient information to form a reliable impression of the storytelling style “Resin” holds in store.

Thematically rich though the movie may be with undercurrents about social anxiety, survival, maturity, and coping with loss, it’s deceptively simple to evaluate “Resin” with a sliding scale. I’ll start by scoring the movie at 50/100 because only a heads or tails call can predict whether it will appeal to one’s personal preferences.

I’ll edge up to 55/100 to acknowledge “Resin” isn’t average. Artfully macabre production design like a butterfly garden diorama adorning a dead body, costuming choices such as Liv’s knit cap made to look like a medieval knight’s chainmail, and Liv’s literary-like narration give the film the feel of a somber fairytale. It’s a creatively crafted narrative executed effectively with vivid photography transporting viewers to a drearily dreamy place that uniquely exists out of time.

I have to continue bumping up to 60/100 because anything lower doesn’t feel like enough recognition for the evident effort. Heartbreaking acting headlined by Vivelill Sogaard Holm as a suitably sympathetic backwoods tomboy and Peter Plaugborg as her alternately unraveling yet deeply caring father makes for emotionally wrenching performances. Pointed directing skillfully reorients “Resin” whenever tone requires a shift from suspenseful to solemn or hopeful to horrific.

From here however, individuals are on their own to add or subtract points as they see fit. If you’re using my star system as a “should I buy?” guide, you still have to season to taste because “Resin” really requires assigning personalized values on a case-by-case basis.

Additional factors affecting consideration include the following: A patient pace. Diary-like voiceovers providing poetically pondering internal monologues. Metaphors illustrated by stylized shots such as a rabbit carcass decaying in a time-lapse transition. Subject matter teetering into incestuous intimations when it becomes lost in cultural translation, e.g. one moment means to be tender in its depiction of Liv’s family cuddling together in underwear, but that image can come with uncomfortable connotations out of context.

At this point, the movie either sounds like something decidedly intriguing or definitively unattractive. I’d prefer to be more declaratory in my assessment, except “Resin” demands to speak in its own voice. What it says might be music for some, but will sound like harsh screeches for others.

Review Score: 60

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