Rose of Nevada

I was absolutely mesmerized by the movie Enys Men so I was excited to see Mark Jenkin's latest, Rose of Nevada, at the Broadway yesterday.  When the fishing vessel Rose of Nevada disappeared from a Cornish village thirty years ago, the effect was catastrophic.  The community has not yet recovered economically and the families of the lost crew, Alan and Luke, are still grieving.  The boat mysteriously reappears and Mike (Edward Rowe), the former owner, decides to hire a new crew and send it back out to sea.  He recruits Nick (George MacKay), a husband and father who desperately needs money to repair his roof, and Liam (Callum Turner), an itinerant worker who sleeps on the dock.  Even though neither one of them have experience, they return with a substantial catch but the village they return to is thirty years in the past.  Liam is mistaken for Alan and is warmly welcomed by Alan's wife Tina (Rosalind Eleazar) and his young daughter while Nick is mistaken for Luke and is taken in by Luke's parents (Adrian Rawlins and Mary Woodvine).  They both realize that something is amiss and go out on the boat again thinking that they will reset the timeline but, when they return to the past again, Liam happily settles into life with Tina.  However, Nick is increasingly distraught and goes to extraordinary lengths to return to his wife Emily (Mae Voogd) and young daughter but eventually becomes conflicted about condemning his community once again.  What I love about Jenkin as a filmmaker is the way he uses images rather than dialogue to tell the story.  He opens with a series of static shots and it is immediately clear that the village is suffering from an economic depression.  He also uses several extended sequences of Nick and Liam working on the boat (fishing is hard work) to establish that they have an aptitude for the job despite the fact they have no experience.  I also love the ambiguity in his movies, especially in this narrative, because you are never really sure if Nick has been displaced in time or if he is suffering from madness.  I was particularly struck by a recurring photo of Alan and Nick on the boat because the movie ends with Nick and Liam in that same photo.  Finally, I loved the use of degraded 16mm film, because this adds to the feeling that these characters are from another time, as well as the unsettling sound design and otherwordly score, because it creates such an atmospheric vibe.  I really dug this and am now eagerly awaiting the next movie from Jenkin.

Note:  I literally spent the whole day at the Broadway because I saw The Odyssey in 35mm (my third viewing!) next.  It gets better every time I see it!