Woman of the Photographs

Woman of the Photographs is an odd one; about a taciturn photo shop owner who reluctantly allows an Instagram model into his life, the film is well made but also a bit too opaque for its own good. It can be beguiling and hypnotic, but there’s also so much about it that makes me scratch my head. It’s maybe the most foleyed movie I can recall seeing, by which I mean that every sound effect is weirdly pronounced to a distracting extent. I have to imagine that this was a deliberate choice, though what it signifies is a bit of a question mark. But then so much of this film is a question mark; it somehow manages to be simultaneously on-the-nose and obtuse (e.g. the film repeatedly hammers home an analogy between the central couple and praying mantises, but then goes nowhere with it). The Fantasia guide calls it a thriller, which is a stretch, and also compares it to De Palma — a hearty LOL at the notion that this is even remotely a De Palma-esque thriller.

** out of ****