Review by Amos Lassen
By: Amos Lassen
"A DIM VALLEY"
In the Kentucky Woods
Amos Lassen
Graduate assistants Albert (Whitmer Thomas) and Ian (Zach Weintraub) stay out in the woods of Kentucky with their biology professor, Clarence (Robert Longstreet), for...
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"A DIM VALLEY"
In the Kentucky Woods
Amos Lassen
Graduate assistants Albert (Whitmer Thomas) and Ian (Zach Weintraub) stay out in the woods of Kentucky with their biology professor, Clarence (Robert Longstreet), for field research. One night, Albert and Ian meet three mysterious women, Iris (Rosalie Lowe) Rose (Rachel McKeon) and Reed (Feathers Wise), and invite them into their cabin. With this, we are taken on an elliptical journey. Writer/director Brandon Colvin gives us room for interpretation and we wonder if there something supernatural going on.
.Albert and Ian are stuck in the woods for a few weeks, acting as field research assistants for their professor. The men are meant to embrace the open world and help Clarence collect samples of life and excrement, keeping each other company as they deal with their professor. They are not terribly bright, and they share a love for marijuana with Clarence, who's going through troubling times in his life and unable to deal with his broken heart. Albert discovers three women making their way through the woods and he is drawn to them. They welcome him into their dynamic and the four of them bring their oddness to Clarence's cabin for an evening of self-examination, fate, and hidden sexuality.
The two students are clueless despite their academic achievements. They don't seem to understand the demands of their summer assignment, and we see their interests in , light banter, and paddle ball. They are really just there to fill the film. Clarence's inner life is a bit more transparent, offering limited patience with his supervisor role, with things about his life bothering him. He works and alleviates his pain with alcohol and , finally reaching a point of defiance when he participate in a round of public urination and then going to jail, giving him time to think things over.
Rose, Iris, and Reed are visions for Albert, who can't quite understand why they are there. They give off strong witchcraft vibes as they lure the young man into their camp site, which quickly catches on fire. We get a vague idea of the women fulfilling their "purpose" while the characters continue on their marijuana mission. \Clarence emerges with some dramatic depth as the professor makes contact with someone from his past at a bar and his emotional darkness increases during a tarot card reading with the strangers who tell him something about finality.
Nothing is particularly clear during "A Dim Valley". We see it as an exercise in style, keeping viewers at arm's length as things happen to the characters, making emotional involvement. Colvin attempts to generate some sort of vibe to the film, but he really keeps it to himself. This is a wonderfully dreamy exploration in a slow mythic folk drama. It takes a little while to get going, to the point that you severely begin to dislike Albert for how annoying he is and the slow pacing might lose some of the audience, but if we can keep with the film and pay attention to what comes up on the screen, there are rewards.
The air of mystery with the three women makes us suspicious of them. They are a little transparent in their intentions in wanting to meddle with the men in some way. Iris seems to have powers that are shown early on to get the nymphs into the cabin. Then our suspicions are heightened even more as the looks and gazes continue throughout. These suspicions mostly come from Reed who almost always has a look of someone plotting a long game.
What you feel at the start of the film will determine if you get something from it, this is the openness of the entire piece. The sexuality of the characters is not clear. It seems that the women are here to enjoy the three men. But while they get close to them, we see that they are here to allow the male characters to open up about themselves.