I streamed Antares on the recommendation of a friend. This 2004 drama has a mild suspense element that uses creative storytelling to keep viewers glued to the screen. The film was a Toronto Film Festival selection and won some minor awards. It was also the Austrian nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. This film treads cautiously through the mine field of social taboos as it presents an interesting examination of characters whose lives intersect at a rundown Vienna apartment complex.
The film opens with a car accident. The accident creates a climax point that ties together three intersecting stories. From the accident, the film moves back several days to explain why one participant in the accident is in Vienna and where the nude pictures in his hands came from. The man is Tomasz (Andreas Patton). He is a married doctor visiting Vienna to carry on a tryst with Eva (Petra Morze) who is also married. Eva and Tomasz are involved in a tawdry affair based on fulfilling sexual fantasies. It is a purely physical interaction over the course of two days, ending with the two missing each other for a final good-bye.
The sequence resets with a young blonde who works at the local grocery store. Sonja (Susanne Wuest) also lives in the same apartment complex with Eva. We have already met Eva in passing, while watching Eva’s segment. Pieces of Eva’s story start making sense, as we learn that she has lied to her boyfriend, Marco (Dennis Cubic). She told Marco she was pregnant so he would marry her. Eva struggles with her paranoia over Marco’s fidelity. She sees things that aren’t there, although we eventually learn that Marco is having an affair with another woman at the apartment complex. A situation evolves that requires a rapid departure from the complex…might this be the source of our accident?
The movie again resets, focusing on a struggling real estate salesman, Alex (Andreas Kiendl). We met Alex in the second vignette when he became engaged in a verbal altercation with Marco. We soon realize that Marco is related to the story more intimately. Alex is separated from Nicole (Martina Zinner) who happens to be Marco’s part-time fling. We watch Alex struggle with his anger issues as he tries to convince Nicole to take him back. His initial success in real estate becomes compromised as he unravels over his failing relationship. Over the course of days, Alex ends up snapping, sending him off in a rage. Again, heading in the direction of disaster.
The interesting aspect of these intersecting stories is the way they are woven together. Director Gotz Spielman wrote the screenplay for this story, which carefully uses visual cues and character interactions to help viewers keep track of where they are in the timeline of each story. This approach helps to build suspense toward the ultimate accident that we already know is coming. While we know one of the people involved in the accident, we still don’t know the circumstances or the other person involved. Through placement of various clues, we are eventually able to figure out what is coming and when. After converging the three stories, we focus on a minor character interaction, allowing us to digest the characters and stories as the screen goes dark. The approach to the characters, setting and plot allowed for decent characters to tie together an otherwise uninteresting story into a somewhat suspenseful tale. I enjoyed this approach to storytelling and found Spielmann’s ability to keep the timelines straight through subtlety to be exceptional. The dialogue was also nicely done.
The performances in Antares were solid all the way around. I thought Morze delivered a measured character that demonstrated her acting skills best in her willingness to show her vulnerabilities with little reservation. Her sexually graphic scenes were compelling and not at all gratuitous. She showed incredible nerve in this respect, as did Patton. I was less impressed with Patton as an actor. His part did little to allow him any range, so he came across to me as otherwise flat. Wuest freaked me out. Her facial expressions created a Sybil-like character that I would have been afraid to go to sleep around (especially if I were carrying on an affair). She did more acting with her expressions than through dialogue. Cubic was decent, but not exceptional. The same could be said for Zinner. Kiendl was on edge throughout the film, doing a nice job of controlling his rage to create an emotional tension that only boiled over a couple of times. But the sense of underlying rage that he created without going overboard was interesting. He did a nice job with his role. Overall, the performances were solid.
The version of Antares I watched is Unrated. If rated by the MPAA, it would undoubtedly get an R rating if it got off lightly. It would more likely get an NC-17 or worse. The first vignette deals with a relationship that appears to be purely physical. This film does not hold back. More than one scene includes sexual intercourse with full frontal male and female nudity, simulated sex acts (or not simulate?), voyeurism, sensory deprivation and various sexual positions. The sex scenes are graphic and intense. They are also contextual and believable. The scenes fit the story, which does not merely rely on the graphic nature of the interaction to make up for a weak concept. Aside from the sexual content, the film also has drug use, alcohol consumption, violence and strong language. All things considered, the latter pale in comparison to the raw sexual content. This is absolutely not a film for young people or people disturbed by nudity/sexual content.
Suspense/Thrillers are my favorite genre of film. Antares manages an element of suspense, although I was a bit let down at the point where the stories converged. The characters and intersecting stories were strong, especially in the way that Spielmann ties the timelines together through carefully placed visual cues and character interactions. It was almost like an Easter egg hunt. The performances were solid as a whole, with some much better than others. The content could be an issue, this is not a film to watch in mixed company. While this film treads lightly on some taboo subjects, it never fully addresses those topics head on. Instead, we get a character study with an element of suspense. The story here is purely in the telling. 7.5/10.
