'INLAND' (LFF Review): Mark Rylance, Rory Alexander stun in Fridtjof Ryder's impressive debut
Not everyone gets a chance to work with Mark Rylance in their debut movie, but German-English filmmaker Fridjtof Ryder left no stone unturned to make his dream come true with 'INLAND'. The movie primarily focuses on a man (Rory Alexander) who has just been released from a psychiatric hospital and has returned home. While driving his car, a bird flies into his windscreen and that moment triggers memories of his mother, Lizzie. The flashback reveals that he was abandoned by his mother when he was really young and that moment left him shattered. All his life he has been searching for his mother and he became so obsessed that he ended up being in a pyschiatric facility.
He later arrives at the house of Dunleavy, a father-figure in the young man's life, and offers him a place to live, but he refuses the offer and tells him that he will just stay in his car. Dunleavy tries to make the young man understand that he should start a new phase of his life and do something productive. However, things get more problematic when he is unable to deal with the trauma of his mother's disappearance and his mental health seems to have reached a point where it's impossible to get him back to normalcy. It's one of those movies where viewers will have a lot to talk about and will have extreme reactions. Even when we watched the movie at the London Film Festival, there were a lot of people who loved the movie, while there were many who believed that it didn't meet their expectations. 'INLAND' is not everyone's cup of tea and would require multiple viewings to understand what it's all about. However, the movie has been shot so beautifully that you never want to leave the movie in the middle.
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The best part of the movie is how Ryder tries to show the young man's vulnerabilities with the help of amazing shots that feel eerie and supernatural. It's visually captivating and has enough off-beat takes to make viewers curious about the man's journey and how he deals with everything that's been happening around him. Rory Alexander as the young man is brilliant. His puffy and confused eyes makes everyone wonder how restless he has become with all the stress and tension. Alexander's performance is raw and that helps the audience to understand what he's going through. Meanwhile, Mark Rylance as Dunleavy is mind-blowing. Even though his role is small, he manages to take everyone by storm with his captivating performance.
'INLAND' is not flawless and it's far from being perfect, but it's an absorbing tale of a man who is finding it difficult to believe what's real and what's not real. Ryder started the production on the movie in 2019 when he was just 19 years of age and this is undoubtedly a great start for his directing career. An impressive start by the debut filmmaker.