A SHOT AT LOVE // A FILM REVIEW OF "BARBARIANS"
Adam (Iwan Rheon) and Eva (Catalina Sandino Moreno) are a happy-ish couple. He's a director and she is very popular artist. We meet them on Adam's birthday and he's feeling second thoughts. Second thoughts on settling down with his girl and living in a beautifully lush woodside home together. The stress of this alone is crippling him, but then comes his sort-of-friend (let's just say "frenemy" at best) Lucas (Tom Cullen) and his new girlfriend Chloe (Inès Spiridonov), arriving for dinner and ready for chaos. Tensions between the two couples arise, with the two men consistently trying to outdo one another. All of that comes to a crashing end though when their evening takes a dramatically sinister turn when a third set of party guests arrive.
BARBARIANS is setting out to be a dark British comedy of manners, a home invasion thriller and a spooky mystery all wrapped into one. Sadly though, it consistently gets tangled in its own web making it hard to ever truly find its footing. None of which is the actors fault, who all bring terrific game to the proceedings. Rheon, Moreno and Cullen all give great performances, with Cullen masterfully laying down the most showy performance, and also the most grating (and I mean that in a good way. The character is awful). Spiridonov does less here, but her character ends up being more window dressing next to a trio of more interesting characters. Co-written (with Statten Roeg) and Directed by Charles Dorfman, the film wants to creep you out while it takes you on a journey into the center of toxic masculinity. But the biggest issue is that it's just not very exciting, or interesting to watch. The cinematography is lovely, the acting hits the right notes, but it really doesn't have anything interesting to say. And in a thriller trying to reveal something, revealing nothing at all seems to be the worst trick of all.
GRADE: C-
WRITTEN BY Charles Dorfman, Statten Roeg DIRECTED BY Charles Dorfman STARRING Iwan Rheon, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Tom Cullen, Inès Spiridonov