Alps (2011) - Giorgos Lanthimos

Yorgos Lanthimo's follow-up to Dogtooth, Alps, is another darkly comedic vision that focuses on a small group of individuals who form an organization they call Alps.  The group is formed in an attempt to help individuals get over the death of loved ones by simply impersonating the deceased.   Yorgo Lanthimo's Alps is a rich, layered film about death, grief, and human relationships which make up our lives.  The film feels slightly more disjointed than Dogtooh because of it's wider scope of characters and story structure, but it's still full of the off-kilter, absurdest humor which only Lanthimos could provide.  Alps is about the human connections which individuals share, as we see the members of Alps who perform this service, get just as much out of it from an emotional level as those who are dealing with the loss of a family member or friend.  The viewer sees how these impersonations help in subtle ways, like for example the parents who lost their daughter become intimate again, showing affection towards one and other.  Make no mistake though, this is really the story of the nurse who helps these parents by impersonating their daughter.  She is really the main character of the film, a woman whose initially tough exterior begins to be stripped away as she impersonates, revealing an incredibly lonely soul.  Lanthimo's is relatively subtle in his approach but what he has really created is a tragic portrait of a young woman whose involvement in this organization is merely a way for herself to feel loved.  When this connection which the nurse has been experiencing by impersonating is taken from her, she suffers greatly, struggling to find any real connection or solace in the world around her.  Yorgos Lanthimo's Alps may take a little bit of deciphering by the average viewer, but once the connection is made, it is an emotionally resonant and fascinating endeavor which really shows the fragility of life, both physically and emotionally.

8.75/10

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