Hour suspended the themes permeate the adaptation by Nadia Latif of the novel by Walter Mosley in 2004. Unlike the police fiction which turned out to be so popular for the author, Man in the BasementWhile having certain thriller aspects, is more a book of ideas. Too many ideas, probably, because the fairly simple stories affect themes such as the dynamics of power, racial relations, colonialism, guilt, redemption and more.
The film, co -written by Mosley and Latif, the latter making its debut as a director, faces the task almost impossible to make all these ideas coherent – and only partially succeeds. But thanks to its powerful atmospheres and its superb performances by its two leaders Corey Hawkins and Willem Dafoe, the film should appeal to viewers looking for more intellectual dishes on its limited theatrical version before broadcasting this year on Hulu later.
Man in my basement
The bottom line
A trembling proposal, if not without interest,.
Place: Toronto International Film Festival (Discovery)
Casting: Corey Hawkins, Repair Dafoe, Anna Diop, Jonathan Ajayi, Jonathan Ajayi, Gershiwn Eustther Jr., nomvete ‘
Director: Nadia Latif
Scriptwriters: Walter Mosley, Nadia Latif
Ranked R, 1 hour 55 minutes
Located in the 90s in a black district of the village of Tony Seaside in Sag Harbor, the story revolves around Charles Blakely (Hawkins), which has settled in a dissolution life after losing its bank job due to a small mark. Drinking heavily, financially devoid and living in the dilapidated house that his family has had for generations for generations, he spent most of his free time playing with his friends Ricky (Jonathan Ajayi) and Clarence (Gershwyn Eustache Jr.).
His life takes on a dramatic turn when a well -dressed unknown strikes his door. The man presents himself then that Anniston Bennett (Dafoe) gives Charles his business card and makes a surprising offer. He wants to rent the uncomfortable subsoil from Charles for 65 days, promising $ 65,000 in cash, delivered in payments, in payment.
Charles diverts him first but, faced with the possible loss of his house because of his inability to pay his mortgage, he contacts Anniston and accepts the offer. Soon, large packages are delivered home. When the businessman obviously well undertaken, presents himself to start his stay, he seems reckless in the wet conditions of the basement.
And this is where things become really strange. The next day, Charles brings an Anniston breakfast, only to discover that he locked himself in a large metal cage which he erected during the night. Horrified by the optics of a black man keeping a white prisoner in his basement, Charles almost ends the arrangement but is finally convinced to hold his end of the agreement.
“Call this a spiritual journey,” explains the enigmatic Anneston to Charles confusing, adding that he will use time to make “a reading, a thought, perhaps a little writing”.
Meanwhile, Charles, who had discovered several African masks while cleaning the basement, ties a friendship with a local antiquity merchant, Narciss (a very good Anna Diop, NannyY), which is so convinced of their historical importance that it proposes that, instead of selling them, she creates a small museum centered on them and in other artefacts in her house.
The meetings between Charles and the mysterious man locked in his basement, alternately brilliant and tense and ultimately deeply disturbing, form the node of the film. Hawkins and Dafoe are playing superbly, the power dynamics move while psychically disentangling begins to use coercive methods to force its captive to reveal that secrets highlighting its motivations for self-induced imprisonment (none of which is very convincing).
The problem is that the allegory scenario does not take place realistically, and it does not fully satisfy in thematic terms. Unlike, let’s say, Leave the world behindwhich contained weight ideas in its apocalyptic scenario focused on the suspense in the same way, Man in the basement proves the dynamics of its history. When it ends with a long quote from The miserable earthyFritz Fanon’s classic psychological study on the dehumanizing effects of colonization, it has long started to look like a thesis in search of a plot.
Nevertheless, the film turns out to be at least somewhat convincing, the Latif director offering enough tension and frightening visuals to maintain committed viewers. Hawkins attracts us everywhere, without fear of making the fragility of Charles Palpable. And Dafoe, an actor who has always excelled in playing figures outside the Kilt, makes us guess on Anniston with a soft voice but Steely, who seems to have the intention of paying not only his sins but those of oppressors in general.
