One reviewer here states, "I'm not about to reveal what the movie is about." Which is a great pity as I have absolutely no idea myself. I don't think I'm giving anything away when I say that it concerns a volunteer on an uninhabited island who is going a bit nuts - this much appears in every review. The problem with it is that there's no plot whatever. Yes, there is the vestige of a story. But for a movie that's classed as a 'horror film, it's a total failure because at no point is the viewer treated to any ramping up of tension. The protagonist barely exhibits any real concern at the number of solemn apparitions who pop up to gaze at her throwing a daily stone down a well. I'd have felt slightly more engaged if she became increasingly alarmed and desperate. But no, nothing. She even chats to one or two of them as if their appearance is perfectly natural. I realise that expressing dissatisfaction makes me sound like a terrible philistine. Perhaps I am, but I absolutely loved Jenkin' s previous movie, Bait, which had similarly fascinating, intense, retro cinematography. But Bait at least wove an engrossing narrative through the camerawork. Enys Men, for me, utterly fails in this department. Instead we have a series of film-school 'great shots' with no connecting narrative tissue. I left the cinema feeling deeply short-changed.
Review of Enys Men
