RESIN (HARPIKS) CWC D: Daniel Joseph Borgman. Denmark. 92 min. Sep 8, 9 pm, Scotiabank 11 Sep 9, 5:45 pm, Scotiabank 9 Sep 14, 4:15 pm, Scotiabank 5. Rating: NNN
After faking their daughter’s death, a family lives in isolation in a Denmark forest. The mother (Sofie Gråbøl) is bedridden the father (Peter Plaugborg) lives in fear of “evil” outsiders. And daughter Liv (Vivelill Søgaard Holm), now in her early teens, is just beginning to understand this is not a good way to live.
That central conflict provides Resin with a coiled, unsettling tension that carries us through a good deal of its running time, as director Borgman (The Weight Of Elephants) and screenwriter Bo Hr. Hansen tease out the specifics of the family’s self-imposed exile.
Holm is a fascinating young performer, and Plaugborg is alternately tender and terrible as her sworn protector. I would have liked a resolution worthy of the eerie, cryptic atmosphere, but you can’t have everything.