Two Lovers And A Bear leaves a chill

TWO LOVERS AND A BEAR (Kim Nguyen). 96 minutes. Opens Friday (October 7). See listings. Rating: NNN

Kim Nguyen’s magic-realist touches serve him better here than in his Oscar-nominated previous effort, Rebelle.

In this snowbound romance-meets-psychological-drama set so inhumanly far north that logic and sanity can’t survive, but violent mood swings and oddball sights, like a polar bear that talks like Gordon Pinsent, feel right at home.

Tatiana Maslany and Dane DeHaan make a terrific pair of brooding, fire-breathing lovers taking comfort in each other’s body heat while escaping their traumatic past. 

As they retreat into a world inside their own heads and the film mines that deep inner space – using isolated settings like a desolate landscape or an abandoned bunker as very overt symbols – the narrative begins to slip. 

Nguyen has a great eye, and he gives us some memorably chilling and whimsical sights. But the film can’t quite build its strongest elements into something that sustains the wayward journey it takes us on.

As with Rebelle, I was admiring what I was seeing but still felt emotionally distant.