Images courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment
ISLANDS— 2 STARS
The first image of Islands is of a clothed man lying facedown in a curvaceous expanse of sand. The early blue light of dawn is starting to illuminate the topography and sky as he comes to. From this view, the low dunes go on in the distance as far as the eye can see, making you wonder just where he is globally. Is this a slice of a massive beach, or is this man marooned in a major desert? The next shot begins to answer that question.
We see him walking in the now-brighter morning sun over a dune down to an SUV pulled off on the side of a marked road with the driver’s door wide open. He reaches in, satiates himself with a bottle of water, gets in the car, turns the motor over, U-turns, and drives away in the direction of a gleaming white hotel rising out of the sandy horizon. Another screen transition snaps closer to reveal the resort in full, accompanied by a swanky blend of piano chords, a solo trumpet, and supporting strings, as the Islands’ opening credits—typed in a throwback Cooper Black font—-and new views of rippling water and hotel activity unfold.
Through those jazzy credits, we see the hungover man is a low-energy tennis instructor (the film hired six tennis coaches) named Tom at the parador—filmed at the kingly Hotel Riu Tres Islas Corralejo on the Fuerteventura island of the Spanish Canaries. His clientele includes children, seniors, and potential female bedmates he tries to impress. Nicknamed “Ace,” he’s got a bottle of liquor stashed in his storage closet, signaling us that the next evening of downed drinks and drowned sorrows isn’t far behind. Not long after the credits end, Tom has sauntered to a local nightclub to seek those earlier ladies for a good time, and is found facedown in the morning again; this time on a bed as the butt of their joke.
LESSON #1: THAT’S HOW YOU OPEN A MOVIE WITH INTRIGUE— The sunny noir vibes are strong in Islands. The spectre of this lithe, mysterious Tom—played by noted British actor Sam Riley—combines with the decadent setting and tone-setting mood music from German composer Dascha Dauenhauer to pique interest and stoke intrigue. No matter what happens going forward in Islands, this is one hell of a first sip to what appears to be a potent movie.
Looking beyond the one-night stands, the true potential temptress arrives in the form of the flaxen-haired married tourist Anne (The Brutalist’s Stacy Martin), vacationing from Britain with her husband Dave (Jack Farthing of Spencer) and young son Anton (newcomer Dylan Torrell). While Dave and Anton are excited to absorb the tennis skills, Anne stares subtly seductive holes through the former pro. After an excursion day where Tom gives the family a tour of the island’s natural sights, he tags along with Dave out to the nightclub, where the music gets louder, and the shots pile up. When Islands cuts to the next morning, Tom is passed out on a deck chair back at the hotel, and Dave is nowhere to be found.
In true shadowy fashion, Islands unfolds a missing person case that pulls Tom, earnestly dropping his scheduled appointments and volunteering to help the authorities and family find Dave, closer to Anne and nearer to greater suspicion. All of this from writer-director Jan-Ole Gerster (A Coffee in Berlin) is well and good if the plot could increase its temperature alongside the steamy summer sun. Unfortunately, after such a promising start, Islands cannot generate the cinematic friction to melt our resolve or sense of suspense.
There are two culprits for this loss of heat. The first is the lack of palpable attraction between Sam Riley and Stacy Martin in the leading roles. As Riley’s Tom is introduced as an odd concoction of a disheveled has-been and a locally-known stud, Islands takes an entire hour to set its stage before the husband goes missing. In that time, the film does not push Tom enough towards any urgent dangers that would force his character to choose between sin and safety. For a character with scant reasons to stay, hover, help, or pine, Riley plays all of this with flatness and total detachment. We learn so little about any of his motivations. Likewise, Martin presents Anne as a bit of a cold fish trapped in this haphazard marriage, with only fleeting glimpses into her possibly masked vitality and true intentions.
LESSON #2: THE SCENARY CANNOT BE MORE INTERESTING THAN THE CHARACTERS— The second malefactor is gorgeous but egregious. The clear-cut star of Islands is Fuerteventura itself. No matter what transpires in the foreground of Gerster’s film, the arid brilliance of the filming locations in Corralejo and Pájara, secured by location manager Irene Ferarios and shot by director of photography Juan Sarmiento G., radiates and overwhelms everything else. At some point, the scenery cannot become more interesting than the characters, especially in a would-be thriller.
The plot of Islands tries its hardest to add doubt to the current conundrum, but it does so in such a soft fashion. Peeks are weaker than pokes and prods every time. Not enough stings about this mystery. A film like this, using such a prime, exotic setting to add awe and infinite scope, should be putting us through our paces and making us sweat. Instead, our viewing eyes, out of dwindling interest, wander around the people to the sumptuous backdrops.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1369)
