Her Name Is Carla

I saw this film at a screening in New York, and found it a fascinating exploration of the lives of two couples, one played by Julian Sands in his best and most controlled performance in years, and Julianne Nicholson, one of the most talented and alluring young actresses around, and the other by Max Beesley, an intense young English actor and musician, and Mina Badie (from "Anniversary Party"). The four come together at a beautiful old house on the water where one couple is having marital troubles and the other arrives and complicates their lives even further, in ways both sexual and menacing. The tension within each couple, and the disturbing quality of their relationship as it evolves over the course of two days and a night, leading to a surprising and shocking conclusion, reminds me of the films of Haneke. I haven't seen the DVD but have heard that the transfer quality is less than optimal. The image at the screening I saw was quite beautiful, so if that's true it's a shame. This is a visual tone poem about four people who lives so intensely in their imaginations that the rest of life becomes almost impossible.

Normally I don't write reviews, however, considering that at this time there are only two user reviews for this film, one over-rating it, and one atrociously under-rating it, I thought for the sake of any interested readers out there I might take a moment...

The coverbox on this DVD is intriguing; A portion of a detailed babydoll's head with blue eyes adorned against a white background. So effective is this coverbox that I rented the sucker. Unfortunately, the attractive coverbox has very little to do with the contents of the actual film on the DVD. Fortunately, although the cover misrepresents the film, the film is watchable. It is not so much a character study as a study in motives.

The entire movie takes place in a 24 hour period. The story concerns a lonely married couple, Bill and Carla, who despite living in what seems to be a prosperous vacation town next to the ocean, are isolated from neighbors, friends, and anything but one another. Into their vacant lives walk another mysterious couple who rather believably manipulate their way into Bill and Carla's forlorn day. What follows is a series of conversations mixing sexual tension and well-founded distrust and suspicion, particularly on the part of the husband, Bill.

The film uses its meager budget creatively, relying on the actors to convey most of it, but also slipping into effective slo-mo shots of their faces which reveal their isolation, phoniness, or unhappiness at the given moment. Early in the film there are some jarring close-ups of the principals that could have been left out and served to remind me that I was watching a film, but as the film progresses it finds its pace and begins to absorb the viewer in its plot and characters.

The characters and plot start out like the beginning of a Penthouse letter, but quickly spiral into the reality of what might happen if those letters took a more sinister turn. There are unresolved questions left for the viewer at the end of the film; Whether the past between two of the characters was innocent, or less than innocent, or whether there was any past at all? Regardless, it does become clear as the movie flows that one of the characters is completely nuts.

The film is a sort of poor man's Talented Mr. Ripley, and is carried by a talented cast who know that the weight of the film is on their backs, and use their skills and their charisma to the hilt to pull it off. Be forewarned, because of its melancholy atmosphere and moodiness, one should be in that sort of mood to fully appreciate it.

Also, it is worth mentioning that the last 4 or 5 minutes of the film seem tacked on as an afterthought to try to increase the drama or intrigue. Personally, I think these last few minutes should have been cut. There is a moment where the screen goes black and there is what feels like the true ending of the film. And then there is a slow fade in and the film comes back for a few minutes of expository business, some voice-over, and a telephone call that do nothing but dispel some of the queasy discomfort the filmmakers had strived for throughout the entire previous hour and 20 minutes.

I don't want to include a spoiler, so it is difficult to tell you how absolutely awful this movie is. I was looking forward to seeing more of Julian Sands. Julianne Nicholson's character, appearance, and performance is horrible. Max Beesley was very interesting to watch, and I wish his character had been better developed and allowed more on-screen time. Long after the movie ended, I was still trying to figure it out, and eventually some of the "clues" sunk in. It really was a convoluted mess. As a married couple, Nicholson's and Sands' characters were completely unbelievable and overly gullible. Even the setting was never clearly explored. Where exactly was this movie supposed to take place? It was implied that it was an extremely popular seaside resort, but we rarely saw any other vacationers. The publicity for the film leads you to believe it will be some kind of very sexy "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", but the entire premise and plot fall flat. There's some "woo-woo" stuff going on too, which might be supernatural or some cerebral malfunction. I'd say stay away from this movie.

I thought it was an excellent film! Thank God for Marijuana. I cooked dinner with my roommate, well, I brought home some already baked chicken form Kroger's, opened a can of 'new potatoes" , threw a can of turkey gravy on top, nuked them while the asparagus was cooking in the steamer. All while I was drinking a miller light. I then proceeded to twist up some hydro in a 1.5 and sat there and smoked it in silence while watching this film. Not one time was I bored. It's so off the wall, it's great! PLOT DESCRIPTION A reclusive married couple residing in a lavish seaside home receive a pair of menacing unwelcome visitors in director Jay Anania's tense tale of homebound terror. Carla (Julianne Nicholson) and Bill (Julian Sands) don't get out much, and when a pair of strangers show up and refuse to leave, the tension in their comfortable beach house soon begins to rise. The evening wears on and when the menace of the visitors turns threatening, Bill attempts to take control of the situation before the emotional violence of his malevolent house guests turns physical. Str8jack_it

Finally got around to watch "Her Name is Carla" here in 2013, despite the movie being from 2005 and despite being a huge fan of Julian Sands.

The verdict? Well, this movie was odd, both in a good and bad way. The good thing about the movie was that it was unpredictable and it always kept you sitting around wanting to see more, because the movie does manage to get under your skin and pull some threads. The story is built up in such a manner that you just want to know what lurks ahead. The bad thing about the movie, is that it progress at a painstakingly slow pace, and when you look at the movie in its entirety, then nothing much really did happen throughout the course of the movie.

It wouldn't do the movie justice to try to summarize it, this movie is the type of movie that just have to be seen and experienced. That being said, then I am more than certain that "Her Name is Carla" is not the type of movie that just everyone will find appealing.

The list of people on the cast is relatively small, basically centered around four people in a house only, which puts a lot of pressure on the shoulders of the small cast. And I will say that the four people; Julian Sands, Mina Badie, Max Beesley and Julianne Nicholson actually did this well enough.

If you like movies that are different from the mainstream produced movies that are flooding the market in abundance, and if you like movies that keep you sort of in the dark all the time, then perhaps "Her Name is Carla" is just what you are looking for.

Personally, I found the plot twists along the way to be nicely thought through and planned, and it did add a lot to the movie. However, ultimately the heel comes down on the slow pace of the movie, which made it sort of hard to sit through. And as such, this movie receives a 5/10 rating from me.