PONTYPOOL
Canada, 2008, 95 minutes, Colour.
Stephen Mc Hattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Riley.
Directed by Bruce Mc Donald.
Just a very cold wintry day, Valentine's Day, in Pontypool, Ontario. At least, it is ordinary at the start, but...
This is a very interesting and arresting thriller with touches of horror, better than most other conventional scary shows that abound these days. What makes it different?
Adapted from his novel by Tony Burgess, the film is about radio, talk and news radio. And, apart from the opening in a car when Grant Mazzey, the radio host, is driving to work early in the morning and is suddenly stopped by a mysterious woman who immediately disappears, the whole film is set in a church basement which serves as the studio and offices for a small radio station. Much of the action is confined to the broadcasting studio and many of the shots are or talking heads or reaction shots. This might not sound too inviting on paper (and the film could work quite well as a radio play) but the performances, the editing and pace as well as the unanticipated action keep us hooked.
The morning progresses normally, although Mazzey (a strikingly convincing performance from Stephen Mc Hattie) is on something of an ego trip, supported by the technician, Laurel Ann, just back from service in Afghanistan (Georgina Reilly), clashing with the producer, Sidney Briar (Lisa Houle). Odd bits of news, questions whether the school bus will run, reports from the weather man who is said to be in a helicopter above the clouds, all very ordinary, until... When a report comes in about riots at a doctor's office, then deaths and injuries and residents behaving suicidally, the station does not know whether it is a hoax or not. (Long memories will remember Orson Welles in 1938 and his dramatisation of The War of the Worlds.) They try to deal with the situation, even having a comic interlude when a local group, The Lawrence of Arabias, one dressed as Osama bin Laden, come in to sing, coping with emergencies as they arise (and they do) and attempting to find out what is happening from witnesses who call in.
All of the outside action takes place off screen – which keeps our imaginations going. Then comes trouble within the station and the arrival of the doctor who seems to be more than a little off and has weird explanations of what the mysterious destructive virus could be. Since this is a film about radio, explanations concern words, broadcasting, repetition, listening. (An IMDb blogger accurately referred to it as a 'semiotic zombie thriller' – now, that is different!)
Congratulations are in order for director, Bruce Mc Donald, and the Canadians for making an inventive, non-exploitive, suspenseful, psychological thriller.
1.The acclaim for the film? Originality, style, effect?
2.The title and expectations, enigmatic?
3.Pontypool as the place, unseen throughout the film? The action confined to the car, to the studios and the building? Audiences having to imagine the town and the events? The interiors, the studios, the office, the kitchen, the basement of the church?
4.The interiors, the confined space, action within this confined space, the use of reaction shots, close-ups? The importance of sound and the absence of sound? The musical score?
5.A film about radio, the equivalent of a radio play? In the cinema? Words alone? Words and images? The credits, the soundwaves on the machine? Illustrating talk?
6.Radio and the importance of words, silences, music, song, comment? Mistakes and rectifying them? Audiences listening? The wide audience? The effect of a one-to-one conversation?
7.The theme of the virus, communicated through words, words in English? Through hearing? The range of meanings, countering the virus with opposites and alternate words? Using other languages? The use of French – and the context of Canada divided? Discussion, combat, silence, writing notes, the use of French?
8.Grant Mazy, a strong character, the focus of the film, in the car, on the phone, firing his associate? The woman’s sudden appearance at the car and his reaction, the poster in the studio, hosting the program, his spiel, the support from Laurel Ann, from Sid? The information for the listeners, his think-pieces, the issue of the lost cat, the news, the man in the air and the weather, his arguments with Sid, her persuading him to do his job? The crisis, reaction, the group of singers coming in, his response, letting them sing?
9.Laurel Ann, nice, supportive, her service in Afghanistan, on the phone, taking the calls, going mad, banging her head, the blood, her death?
10.Sid and her role, the producer, a mother and contact with her children, arguing with Mazy? The earphones, the advice? Her principles? Local information, the work with Laurel Ann? Ken and his information? The truth about his not being in the air? The puzzle and her response?
11.Ken, giving the weather, the information, the crisis, the silo, the doctor, the crowds, the riot, the deaths? His own death – and his reaction on air, repeating the words?
12.Concern whether the episode was a hoax or not? The group confined in the station, the tension, suspense? Giving the interview to the television journalist – and his questions and various hypotheses? About French Canada?
13.The development of the crisis, coping in the studio, using the radio, Laurel Ann and her collapse, the doctor coming in, his theories, strange talk, the virus, his behaviour and madness, getting out?
14.The crowds of people at the station, banging on the doors, crashing on the glass, the decision to go through the loudspeakers? Deaths? Zombies?
15.Sid, her concern, phoning her children? Her fear, communicating in French? Mazy and his getting her to recover by using opposite words, kiss for kill…?
16.Mazy, the puzzle, his being fatalistic, trying to manage in French, helping Sid, the notes?
17.The French, the broadcast, the helicopter – bombing the studio or not? The media reports about what had happened?
18.The postscript with Sid and Mazy – a macabre humorous touch at the end?
