Tags:
Film: Triangle
Year: 2009
Director: Christopher Smith
Writer: Christopher Smith
Starring: Melissa George, Michael Dorman and Henry Nixon
Review:
This was a movie that I feel like I saw the case when working at Family Video, but I cannot confirm that. It is one that I know I heard about through podcasts. It intrigued me when I learned what this was about and how the title factors in. Interestingly, this was originally going to take place around Miami, Florida. That would incorporate the Bermuda Triangle. Instead they moved it to Australia and I think part of that is the actors involved. I did read an explanation of why they kept the name, even though this moved and it makes sense.
Synopsis: five friends set sail and their yacht is overturned by a strange and sudden storm. A mysterious ship arrives to rescue them and what happens next cannot be explained.
We start this off in the home of Jess (Melissa George). She is comforting her child of Tommy (Joshua McIvor). She then gets paint on her dress. That is when the doorbell rings. She is frustrated and she has a lot on her plate. We learn later that her son has autism and when his routine is effected, it messes everything up.
It then shifts to a sailboat. Greg (Michael Dorman) is the captain. Working with him on it is Victor (Liam Hemsworth). Greg is a sort of father figure or someone who looks out for him. He found him homeless and decided to help him, in exchange for his help on the boat. Greg is taking a group of friends out that include Downey (Henry Nixon), his wife of Sally (Rachael Carpani) and their friend Heather (Emma Lung). The purpose here is to set up Heather with Greg. He invited Jess though. Victor leads her to boat and she is shaken up by something, to the point where Victor says something to Greg.
There is an uneasy time on the boat. Greg is focusing on Jess, who he has a crush on. Sally wants Heather to spend time with Greg to get to know him. This excursion takes an odd turn though. The wind dies away abruptly. Victor asks if the captain has seen this before. He confirms that he has, but not this fast. That is when a freak storm rolls in. Greg calls the coast guard who doesn’t have a storm on their radar. It is violent and it capsizes the boat. Before it does, they hear a distress call over the radio that fades away.
They lose Heather in this. They think salvation comes when a large ocean liner pulls up. They see someone on board, but they disappear. The name of this vessel is Aeolus, which has a connection with Greek mythology. There is someone else on the ship. They have a gun and they attack the group. There is something not quite right here and the identity of this person is someone they know. The only hint I’ll give here is that they may be stuck in a time loop.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and my introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that I love the premise here. I’m a sucker for movies about time travel or similar ideas. This one is interesting since we are getting a time loop. What I like though is that we don’t necessarily know how long or how far reaching this is. There is good writing here that takes this all the way back to the beginning. There are subtle things that got revealed that made my jaw drop. I wanted to give credit to those first.
Then going from there, we get a sort of slasher film. Not in the traditional sense though. Our ‘villain’ is using a gun for the most part so I know that makes it not fall into that sub-genre. There is a time where I believe someone is stabbed. Regardless, when they get to the ocean liner, we have this masked figure. I love that they look like Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th Part 2 by wearing a sack on their head. Seeing what it is was interesting. I love that look. Who is under it is good. I also like the reason that they’re attacking these survivors and what they believe will happen if they do.
Now I do want to shift this over to the time loop again. We don’t know how long it goes or where it starts. We think that we do and then another wrinkle gets added. I see why there are comparisons to Timecrimes as there are similar elements and plot points. The difference there is that that one goes more to the science where this movie leans more into it happened. We also don’t get an answer why. Now the scientific idea that time is a flat circle is here. We comprehend time in a linear fashion as we cannot wrap our head around it. I love that we get to see a representation of that. Seeing how much this has played out was crazy to see. The last bit I’ll add here is from what I read as an answer to the question about why it was called Triangle. They’re still using the idea of the Bermuda Triangle and the mystery around that area amazes me.
I don’t know if there is anything more I needed to flesh out with the story so I’ll go to the acting. George is good as our lead. I like that we see a bit of her homelife and more gets revealed later. She shows a range of emotions and characters, I enjoyed that. Dorman, Nixon, Carpani, Lung and Hemsworth are also all good. I like that they don’t seem to know what is going on as Jess tries to navigate. She tries to make them see, but it is difficult as it is unbelievable.
Then the last things will be with the filmmaking. I think this is shot well. The cinematography is good. I like seeing something from one direction and then getting to seeing it from other angles as Jess navigates through the ship/time loop. Then with the effects. They are also good. We don’t get a lot, but we don’t need them either. The blood looks real enough which is all I ask for. There is CGI. It doesn’t look great, but it also isn’t a focal so it doesn’t ruin anything either. Other than that, it would be the soundtrack. I thought it fit for what was needed. Much like with the different angles, we hear things and getting to see it from other angles is interesting.
In conclusion, this is an interesting movie. I love the concept of time loops and mixing in elements of a slasher film while also setting it on a ship in the ocean. This makes it difficult to get away. We also have characters that don’t necessarily know what is going on. George has a good performance as our lead. She shows an interesting range of emotions. This is well-made movie. It is taking on lofty ideas. I would recommend this movie as I rather enjoyed this one quite a bit.
My Rating: 8 out of 10