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nTitle: The Divide (2011)
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nDirector: Xavier Gans
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nCast: Michael Biehn, Rosanna Arquette, Lauren German, Milo Ventimiglia, Michael Eklund
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nReview:
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nSo this is a very polarizing film, you’ll either love it ornyou’ll hate it. Either you’ll appreciate the themes and issues it addresses, ornyou’ll feel like you lost two hours of your life. It’s interesting that a filmnthat causes such polarizing effects is called ‘The Divide’. Me? Im a weirdo, so I personally fellnsomewhere in between. I loved some things about it, but I also felt I couldnhave gone further with it’s ideas, as it is, it feels like a film held back by budgetary limitations.
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nThe Divide starts out with what a lot of post apocalypticnfilms avoid; the actual apocalypse! This I liked because most post apocalypticnfilms only talk about their apocalypse by way of newspaper articles or a simplenvoice over, but not The Divide. This film actually shows us the nukes cuttingnthrough the skies and landing right smack in the middle of New York City
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nSo this is the kind of film in which a bunch of people endnup enclosed in a room in which slowly but surely their true colors begin to surface;nkind of like in Vincenzo Natali’s Cube (1997), a film in which a series ofnstrangers suddenly wake up inside of a room; they don’t know how they got there; nobody isnrelated, nobody knows each other, the only thing that connects them is the roomnand the situation they are in; same thing with George Romero’s Night of thenLiving Dead (1968). In films of this nature, characters have to learn to workntogether in order to survive; but can they work together when they can’t even standneach other? Usually, in these films the personalities that are forced to liventogether end up being vastly different; so you get the quiet one, the funnynone, the nerdy one, the tough one, the alpha male and the unequivocal asshole. Withnso many different personalities in one room, it’s only a matter of time beforenthey are at each others throats.
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nThe Divide is no different, only in The Divide, almost everyonenis an asshole, or at least ends up turning into one. Imagine a film in which almostneveryone is despicable. This is the kind of film The Divide is, it’s a verynbleak film that has little to no faith in humanity, some people will end upnhating the film simply because of this. There’s so much negativity on this picture!nIt’s the kind of film that says that under strenuous circumstances, humanitynwill end up eating each other; which in a way is true. The tougher things getneconomically speaking, the trickier everyone gets, suddenly you pay three timesnmore for something that use to cost a whole lot less a couple of years ago. Suddenlynyour mechanic finds a way for you to come back in a couple of weeks. Suddenlyngas prices skyrocket. Humanity eats itself in a never ending vicious cycle. Nownimagine if suddenly food was no longer available in supermarkets! Imagine ifnthere was no power, no electricity, no money. Would chaos ensue? Would peoplenend up turning into cannibals? Would we loose all our moral fiber? Ournhumanity? Would we all go nuts if suddenly no cameras were taping our everynmove? Would we steal? Cheat? Lie? Kill?
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nThe problem with The Divide is that it tests your patiencenbecause 90% of it takes place in the basement. After a while you grow tired ofnthe same setting and wish you could see something different. You end up feelingnas claustrophobic as the characters. For example, Cube had this premise ofnpeople locked up in a room, but the room always changed, and the charactersnwere always confronted with a different situation. In The Divide the locations don’tnchange, it’s the characters that change. The nicest people end up turning intonthe biggest monsters. So before you watch this movie you need to ask yourselfnif being inside of a room with a bunch of complete douche bags is what younwant, cause that’s what your gonna get! This is the kind of film that wants tonexplore humanities darker side, so you’ll see humans turning into metaphoricalnmonsters. If you’re not ready to go down the rabbit hole of craziness, younknow, the deep dark side of the human psyche, then don’t bother. Though to benhonest, I thought the film was going to be sicker, more depraved, it isn’t allnthat.
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nI enjoyed the sci-fi elements they infused into the film,nbut honestly I wish they could have explained more, shown more. As it is, theynonly give us a glimpse of coolness. This is a movie that can wear you down, bynthe mid way point you don’t want to be in the room with these people anymore,nat least that’s how I felt. To me this is the kind of film I watch only once,nand never bother to revisit again. Director Xavier Gans works with a minusculenbudget, and obviously this limits how much you can show in terms of effects andnaction, but this is the kind of film that relies not on effects, but on itsnperformances. It was cool to see Michael Biehn on a film again, in my opinionnhe is so underused in movies. The rest of the cast really go for this descentninto madness, Rosanna Arquette does a great job as well. In the end, this is anvery dark picture, which gets kind of stale because it only takes place in oncenplace. The Divide is an overdose of darkness, despair, betrayal, lust andnviolence, which will test your patience. Prognosis for this one: you’ll eithernendure it, or turn it off at the half way point; I doubt you’ll love it.
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nRating: 2 1/2 out of 5
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