Islands (6/10)

Directed by: Jan Ole-Gerster
Starring: Sam Riley, Stacy Martin, Jack Farthing, Dylan Torrell
Runtime: 123 minutes
Rating: NR

Review by Tony Medley

Tom (Sam Riley) is a 40-ish tennis pro idling his life away at a second-rate resort on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, teaching lessons by day and drinking and partying at night, sleeping with whomever he can. Into his life comes a family: Anne and Dave Maguire (Stacy Martin and Jack Farthing, respectively). Anne wants Tom to give lessons to her son, Anton (Dylan Torrell).

Anne seems vaguely familiar to Tom. Their marriage appears troubled. They befriend him. While Anne comes across as an inscrutable tease, Dave wants Tom to introduce him to the island’s nightlife. One evening, Tom takes Dave to a nightclub and leaves him there. Dave does not return, and Anne entreats Tom to help her find him, eventually reporting her husband missing.

Anne seems less than upset by Dave’s disappearance, and in accordance with the rules of noir draws Tom deeper into the mystery. At this point, the film develops into a pretty good noir. The essential elements are all present:

A flawed, cynical anti-hero protagonist.A seductive, manipulative femme fatale.
A world of morally ambiguous figures. A core of pessimism, fatalism, and crime.Psychological tension and a twisty plot.

Check, check, and check! The story moves along enticingly as the authorities get involved. A suspicious officer suspects Anne (and perhaps Tom) knows more than she lets on, and Tom becomes increasingly confused and entangled.

The acting is uniformly excellent. Stacy Martin, who appeared in Nymphomaniac (2013), gives a compelling performance as the steamy noir woman of dubious morality.

Directed by Jan Ole-Gerster from a script by him, Blaz Kutin, and Laurie Doran, what seemed to be a promising noir—with its interesting pace, strong ambience, and moral ambiguity—unfortunately loses its way. After 105 minutes of compelling setup, it takes a wrong path with a disappointing, anticlimactic denouement that abandons its noir foundations.

Casablanca (1942) was improved by producer Hal Wallis’s last-minute intervention, adding the iconic final line. Islands needed a producer like Wallis to steer its final act back in line with noir essentials. Without that, it ultimately becomes a character study about a man wasting his life on a remote island. It would be a much better film as a true noir.

But I did like it for 105 minutes.