Film Review: Lost River

A Directional Debut Delving Into Darkness

After being the talk of the town when it comes to acting over the past couple of years, cereal hater Ryan Gosling has chosen to take the directors seat this time, with Lost River being based around a story of his own creation, and featuring a cast consisting of Mad Men's Christina Hendricks, Agents of Shield's Ian De Caestecker, the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, and Ms. Gosling, Eva Mendes. With past directorial experience with directors such as Derek Cianfrance for The Place Beyond the Pines and Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive and Only God Forgives, the odds were stacked high in Gosling's favour for his directorial debut. Unfortunately for Gosling and Lost River, the director's career has got off to a bit of a bad start.

In terms of the story, Hendricks plays single mother Billy, who after being threatened by her bank manager Dave, played by Ben Mendelsohn, agrees to take a job offering in the darker side of her hometown in an attempt to make financial ends meet, whilst her son Bones is hunted down by Matt Smith's character, Bully, forcing him to also seek out the dark and dangerous side of the town along with Saoirse Ronan's character, Rat. Firstly, the tone of the film is so obviously based around the teachings of Winding Refn that it made me cringe in places, with the neo-noir tone that was so effective in Drive, being put to use here, but in a much pointless and boring way. I mean poor old Ben Mendelsohn, not only does he have to portray one of the most boring characters ever, he also has to do a bit of karaoke, a scene lifted straight from Only God Forgives, and dance like Richard Curtis in another scene for no particular reason whatsoever. Why Gosling, why?

Not only is Refn the main inspiration here, but David Lynch too, who unlucky enough for Gosling, happens to be one of my favourite directors. Lost River does attempt to be seen as  its' own Lynchian masterpiece, using all the dreamy, mystical tropes of Blue Velvet and Inland Empire, but ultimately fails. Not only is the plot actually really dull and uninteresting, but the sense of fantasy that tries to be implemented makes it comical at times. I think I counted three scenes at least where all Smith's character does is scream really loud. I mean, why? So Lost River is not the worst film of the year, it just seems like it (Lynch reference here, I'm clever too Gosling) with a cast as good as this being wasted in trying to fulfill Gosling's dream of being as good a director as Lynch or Refn. I'd give it a miss. 

Overall Score: 4/10