Citadel

Saddled with an almost nonsensical premise, Citadel slowly-but-surely squanders a promising opening to become a rather interminable thriller that feels endless even at 84 minutes. The movie opens with a seriously stunning sequence that holds a great deal of promise, however, as writer/director CiarĂ¡n Foy kicks the proceedings off with a tense sequence in which a man (Aneurin Barnard’s Tommy) watches helplessly as his wife (Amy Shiels’ Joanne) is attacked by a group of vicious youths. From there, Citadel segues into a slow-moving storyline revolving around Tommy’s efforts at coping with a newfound fear of open spaces and his investigation into the mysterious nature of his wife’s seemingly-inhuman attackers. It becomes more and more clear that Foy’s ambiguous handling of the material cements Citadel‘s ultimate downfall, as it is, for much of the movie’s opening hour, impossible to tell what’s actually occurring and what’s merely in Tommy’s increasingly paranoid mind – with the cryptic vibe making it impossible to genuinely sympathize with the character’s exploits and draining the movie’s few tense moments of their impact. Foy’s inability (or unwillingness) to establish the rules of this bizarre universe prove fatal, as the viewer can’t help but question virtually every single element contained within the aggressively deliberate narrative (ie where are the authorities during all this? why do there not seem to be any other rational characters around? etc, etc). It goes without saying that the action-heavy climax fares as poorly as everything preceding it, and it’s finally impossible to see how this subject matter could’ve worked in any context other than a very, very short film.

*1/2 out of ****

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