By Billy Newbery
Sirât is an odyssey both as a film and an experience. With an incredible sound track, gorgeous visuals, a near other worldly landscape and a monumental tone, Sirât promises to be one hell of a film out of the gate. It plays as one part epic myth, following a group of characters who are pushed to their limits as they travel across a strange, almost apocalyptic landscape, as the world seems to be ending in the face of wars and military coups. And it is another part character drama following the small tale of a father and son travelling with an interesting ragtag group in order to find a lost family member. The problem is the film never fully lives up to the promises of either an interesting character drama or a powerful myth.
Instead as the film unfolds it does very little to build the story into a myth other than through the tone. Leaving the scenes to be more character drama which never quite works because the film keeps us at arms length to these people. Never really getting to know them, instead we spend more time staring at a blank expression on their face or watching them wake up, rather than being welcomed into any character development. Leading to scenes where you can find yourself not really caring for the characters, or their journey all that much. Then at some point the film makes a sudden and very dramatic choice that shifts everything. A choice so quick and jarring that it left me not in shock but instead cold waiting for the point of it.
Later as the film arrives at the point. Giving us a kind of ultimate scene which promises to make sense of the character drama and the myth. Suddenly this very scene is interrupted and cut down by yet another dramatic left field choice. Changing again, we set off into a new direction for the final moments of the film. In this odd finale my cinema was breathless with anxiety and I was trying not to laugh like a school kid in assembly. This ending feels as my friend pointed out to me like the half way point of another film. Leaving you with an incomplete story that will never be finished. Which could have had a deep and rich meaning if it wasn’t for the earlier interrupted scene.
This is a messy and strange film, filled with absolutely fascinating ideas and wild swings which feel more for the sake of themselves than anything else. It’s a beautiful yet pointless myth about nothing really deeper, with characters who never become anything on a journey which is more boring than thrilling. It’s a film that asks for your patience and thoughtfulness without earning it in the first place or delivering on it in the end. As the credits roll on this film you may find yourself finally breathing after 20 minutes or like me you might ask yourself what did I just watch and why on earth should I care about any of it?