What is an artistic masterpiece? If you're talking about music, take a listen to Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. Looking for artistry in films? Get comfortable on your couch and check out Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 beauty Breathless, or David Lynch's 2001 mystery Mulholland Drive. Those pieces of work are artistic things of beauty. Unfortunately, 2013's The Forbidden Girl, only wishes it were. Written and directed by German Til Hastreiter, this stylishly shot film is a convoluted mess. Almost two hours in length, this movie plods along at a snails pace. There is no attempt to infuse the characters with any backstory, or understanding of what is going on. The movie treats the viewers like passerby's more than as an audience.
For what it's worth, the story is centered around Toby (the capable Peter Gadiot), a young man raised by a psychopathic religious zealot father is warned that he must never love anyone. Why? I was never quite sure why. From what I could gather, Toby has been marked to be some type of evil repellent. However, Toby doesn't adhere to his father's orders and finds himself in love with a young girl named Becky (the interesting Jytte-Merle Bohrnsen). The two decide to consummate their love inside an abandoned mausoleum only to have Becky suddenly snatched away by some ominous demonic force. The next thing we know, Toby is in an insane asylum for allegedly killing his father.
Things only get worse from this point. Toby is released six years later and is given the worse job in history, a tutor for a couple that would give Gomez and Letitia Addams a run for their money. Weirdness takes center stage from this point, but not good weirdness. Ghostly guys pop in and out, Toby finds a girl who is the identical twin of Becky only blonde, crazy and going by the name Laura.
As I'm watching this film, I'm hoping for some revelation, some accountability to the audience as to what's going on, but this never happens. As I mentioned the movie looks great, cinematographer Tamas Kemenyffy does a great job, and would appear to have a bright future in filmmaking. The acting is better than I would have expected, and I can only imagine that with a better script they would have had some work to be proud of. The special effects weren't bad considering the budget for this film had to be miniscule.
Overall, Forbidden Woman is neither artistic or scary. There are moments in this film when you can see what the director was grasping for. Unfortunately, it always managed to stay beyond his talent to obtain. Overall, I couldn't recommend this film to anyone other than an insomniac, who after a few minutes of this somniferous offering would find themselves in peaceful sleep.
