Sydney Film Festival 2006: Starfish Hotel

Starfish Hotel, directed by John Williams 2006.

I've been sitting here at the computer for a good 10 minutes without typing a word because I'm really not sure exactly how to go about writing a review for this film. David Lynch meets Donnie Darko is a good way to describe things, but really that doesn't tell you much about the film. The honest truth is that I left the theater in a fairly confused state. I knew that I enjoyed the movie, but I really wasn't sure what I had just seen. I think I'm still not sure exactly what I have seen. If I had the luxury of seeing the film again before writing anything about it, I would jump at the chance, instead your stuck with my convoluted first viewing reactions.

Imagine trying to explain the last 45 minutes of Lynch's Mulholland Drive to someone 15 minutes after you had seen it. That's how I feel about the entirety of Starfish Hotel 6 days after having seen it.

The basic premise of the film is this: Yuichi Arisu is man with a beautiful wife and high paying job. He is also a man with a penchant for the mystery novels of Jo Kuroda. Yuichi has just picked up Kuroda's most newest novel ''The Darkness". Advertisements for it are everywhere, from the television to the walls of the commuter trains, to the man in a twisted rabbit suit. And you thought Donnie Darko had the market cornered on bizzare rabbit suits. Yuichi has a brief run in with the man in the rabbit suit (which becomes evident what the character Mr. Trickster wears in Kuroda's novels) and returns home that evening to find his wife gone. As the next couple days go by, Yuichi begins to panic and things begin to make less and less sense.

Temporal continuity is seemingly taboo for Williams as he jumps back and forth through time with impunity. I like to consider myself pretty film savvy, but I found myself lost again and again. Narrative continuity also seems to be taboo, as the story is broken apart, split, realligned, and then merged to the point where it is impossible to tell whether what you are watching is the actual narrative, one of Kuroda's novels, or if what you think is the actual narrative is really just all one of Kuroda's novels.

Confused yet? I hope so because I think I've managed to confuse myself. The film is extremely atmospheric and parctically dripping with style, so at the very least, while you may completely lost as to what exactly is going on, you get pretty visuals to stare at in the process. Despite all this, I found myself really enjoying the film, I just wished I could have watched it a few more times before posting this review.

***Three Stars