TIFF Movie Review – Closed Curtain (2013)

A writer hiding out with his dog at a seaside villa gets visited by a mysterious woman and her brother.

A taxi arrives and leaves behind a passenger who slowly makes his way to a seaside villa; he is revealed to be an elderly man carrying a black gym bag inside of which is his loyal dog.  The first thing the new arrival does is to pull all of the curtains closed and a television magically turns out showing a news broadcast where canines have declared enemies of the Islamic state.

The isolated refuge is disturbed by two unexpected visitors consisting of a fugitive brother and a sister appear almost out of nowhere following the disposal of wasted found in the litter box for the dog.  How did they get in is a question that haunts their reluctant host?  As the brother goes to arrange for an escape vehicle never to be seen again, his sister continually crosses paths with the elderly man who is writing a screenplay.

A dramatic twist occurs as a movie director appears after the villa is ransacked who is unaware of the presence of other people in his home.   One begins to wonder, “What is real?  Are the characters figments of various memories?”  This is the point where the narrative storyline becomes jumbled.

There is a remarkable relationship between the furry companion and the elderly man which is at the level of the acclaimed performance found in The Artist (2011).  Daring creative choices have also been made such as the long opening shot where the action is allowed at a leisurely pace to approach the camera.  However, these elements are undermined by the need to add a psychological twist which lacks the dramatic impact of The Sixth Sense(1999) and instead causes confusion.