Keyhole (2011) - Guy Maddin

Ulysses Pick arrives home after a long absence with the body of a teenaged girl and a gagged young man in tow.   A gangster, Ulysses is greeted by his gang who has been waiting for him after a long standoff with the police.  Strangely enough, Ulysses house seems to be haunted, leading him on a journey upstairs, attempting to reach his wife, Hyacinth, locked in the bedroom upstairs.   Guy Maddin's Keyhole is not an easy film to describe.  Featuring his trademark style, Keyhole is probably the closest thing to a haunted house film we will ever see by Guy Maddin.  The film plays like some type of mystery noir in the early stages, but ultimately it becomes clear that this is an emotional journey for Ulysses in which he comes face-to-face with some of his darkest secrets, locked deep away in his own memories.  Keyhole is like a nightmarish dreamscape that is as fragmented and mysterious as our main protagonists memory.  Primarily a film experimenting with memory and ultimately forgiveness, the film uses unconventional editing and camera work to create this world.  While it's haunting and enigmatic, the film never grabbed me much on an emotional level, making the home stretch of the film a bit of a let down.   This has got to be Maddin's most perverse outing in years, making it certainly worth a watch for anyone who is a fan of strange, off-beat cinema.

7/10

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