I first came across Vesper having seen the main poster image alongside some brief discussions of the film online regarding its worldbuilding and science-fiction elements, from the moment I saw it it did manage to capture my attention, seemingly like something that was definitely my type of thing, something I would likely enjoy and believe could be a rare indie film that takes on a genre that is often overlooked when it comes to thin budgets. Vesper didn't feel like a film that had a thin budget though, it was a film that felt quite the opposite, in fact. With a very long runtime and some high quality visuals, Vesper seemed like a dream of ideas thrown together all into one, as if to convey some ideas its creator intends to explore in more detail later on, merely using Vesper as a note that contains the ideas.
That is not to praise the film at all, however. The fact that it feels like it was a higher budget film comes from a runtime that was not justified whatsoever, alongside slow visuals that would fool the newer arthouse or indie fan without really following up on any substance in its narrative. Which serves as a great disappointment to the average viewer when Vesper starts off quite strong, conveying various interesting elements of its world that it never really gives enough time to, moving on to lesser interesting details that make it feel like quite a slog to get through.
Vesper is an attempt at the science-fiction genre with a more artistic vision, but it falls flat by not really knowing where to go for the most part. Showing some great character designs but sadly falling back to its main interior set and promoting the idea of youth accepting and exploring adulthood rather than focusing on what feels more important. Again juggling these multiple ideas around as it teases the cool and creative, replacing it with the boring instead.
Vesper
Vesper starts off by throwing us directly into a very mystical looking world, one that is dystopian and seemingly full of danger. We see a dense fog and a marshland, followed by what appears to be a young scavenger seeking out resources within the mud for survival purposes. To follow is a floating sphere with a face drawn on it resembling the beloved Winston of Tom Hanks' Cast Away film. Prior to this, we are given a few lines of text that sets up the general idea of this world and how genetic engineering has resulted in the total collapse of the Earth's ecosystem. Viruses run rampant within nature, consuming all it can that is living. Humans appear to be struggling to find food that isn't already consumed by these viruses, incapable of surviving with ease as these viruses even target them.
Humanity's survival seems reliant on a central authority that produces seeds that are capable of providing food, but are genetically created and hardly reliable for future harvests. These struggling citizens oddly have to trade their own blood for these seeds, and it isn't really made clear why at first. There is a mixture of technology and weird superstition that seems to linger throughout the film and its densely fogged environments, where nature seems to be thriving in some regards, but perhaps against the will of the people that are evidently no longer in control. Everything seems to be a threat, even other people, but our protagonist, a young girl that studies biohacking in her home, attempts to defy the norm and seek out some solutions with the aide of her dying father.
This is where the film starts to fall flat: the young girls' father continues to be a large part of the film's narrative despite not really offering anything. We see her attempts to work alongside the drone which seems to contain elements of him that allow him to travel around with her while reminaing bedridden at home, and power is a scarcity. But regardless of how things turn out, the girl returns home and more drama ensues around her father and his state. I got the idea here, but it lingered on around here for far too long as these other elements of the film and its worldbuilding became an after thought, ultimately pushed aside in favour of other plot directions that I found were hard to really care for. At times I was just waiting for the father to die so the film could seemingly pick up again, but it didn't really happen.
Every so often throughout the film something attempts to happen alongside some admittedly very beautiful visuals through the cinematography which was rather static, and gentle, soft lighting of which had plenty of pleasing tones. But nothing felt as interesting as the film's core introduction. It lost me for a while as I found myself pausing the film to go and do other things, as I felt breaks were definitely needed to get through its near two hours of runtime. Of which none of it felt necessary or really utilised in any way. Its constant teasing of more interesting aspects of its world and narrative began to feel tiresome as this narrative took a different direction, one that was more personal and character driven surrounding characters we never really had much reason to care for.
Good filmmaking, but just not enough substance
Shot mostly on location within Lithuania, Vesper is a very beautiful film. I really liked the lighting which was quite soft, giving the world this very dull, dystopian yet somewhat cozy look. As expected with a world supposedly facing the loss of life itself, one would expect less colour to be present, and that is how the world is displayed. The world is cold, muddy, dense in fog and its only colour comes from artificial lighting, contributing to the idea of humanity's reliance on technology as it continues to stray far from nature, now clinging desperately for an attempt to revive it. There are references to the 'Citadel' in which the seeds come from, but we don't really get much of an idea of what that looks like, only that it is some location that seems generally controlling and safe. Part of me is happy we do not really see it, given it does contribute to the idea of the dystopia in which the lowest, most poor now struggle for survival alongside these harsh viruses that plague the forests.
Despite the very slow feeling of the film, I don't think it is due to the directing or cinematography itself but more a very lackluster script. Slow visuals and dull lighting for two hours will of course make you somewhat tired if you're also met with gentle speaking and little suspense as the film itself continues to remain mostly within one central location. Again with characters that just aren't that interesting for the most part. Once things pick up, it seems a bit too late, and this is sadly when our Vesper protagonist begins to roam a bit more and the threats arise. Sadly, Vesper is a film with plenty of ideas but no real substance to them; it teases and shares cool designs within costume design, but again escapes it and returns to the least interesting aspects of the story.
I have seen many others saying the same thing in this regard, and some even pointing out that it seems like an idea that would have been better off a television show to give those ideas more time to pan out, focusing on the worldbuilding and characters more to give us more reasons to care and see what it has to offer. Reminding us somewhat of films such as Snowpiercer in regards to the rich hiding away from their problems, and how society has led to many suffering and selling their own blood just for some one-time seeds.
Vesper is full of cool ideas, but struggles with two hours to really do anything with them, and for that I can't really recommend it. There are far better things worthy of such time. Cool visuals aren't enough to justify it.
