Mortal

Directed by André Øvredal, Mortal follows Nat Wolff’s Eric Bergland as he comes to the eventual realization that he possesses powers of a rather otherworldly nature. It’s a solid premise that’s employed to exceedingly (and disappointingly) hit-and-miss effect by Øvredal, as the filmmaker, armed with a script written with Norman Lesperance and Geoff Bussetil, delivers a slow-moving and palpably padded-out piece of work that is, for much of its running time, hardly as engrossing as one might’ve anticipated – which is a shame, certainly, given that the picture does possess its fair share of compelling, entertaining attributes. (Wolff’s intense turn as the mysterious protagonist is certainly an obvious highlight within the proceedings, although the woefully underdeveloped nature of his character admittedly exacerbates the film’s various problems.) There’s little doubt, then, that Mortal‘s status as a watchable, just-good-enough endeavor is due to its periodically captivating interludes and a final stretch that’s nothing short of electrifying, despite the fact that, in terms of the latter, the movie essentially concludes just as it begins to really start cooking (ie it’s about as frustratingly abrupt a finish as one could possibly envision) – with the end result a relentlessly erratic origin story that does, at least, fare better than efforts involving a certain Marvel superhero.

**1/2 out of ****