Two sisters keep each other alive while the world goes to hell in Into the Forest, a survival picture by Patricia Rozema (Mansfield Park, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing) that, for a while, almost makes the end times look serene. Beautiful and sensitive to character but gripping when it needs to be, the pic is too grounded to be lumped into the apocalyptic genre bin, and stars Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood should ensure it attracts attention from moviegoers beyond that niche. Though set “in the near future” and offering quick glimpses of next-gen tech, nothing in the film would be different thirty years ago, and marketers would probably be wise to focus on two-handed drama over an irrelevant sci-fi label.
Adapting a novel by Jean Hegland, Rozema checks in with her protagonists at intervals: By two months in, Eva has entered a depression; at six months, they have established a fruitful foraging routine; strangely, they don’t seem to start hunting wildlife until they’ve been stranded for more than a year. The actresses inhabit a wholly believable sibling dynamic, with Eva needing more nurturing than her sister and only really drawing nourishment from her dance sessions — beautiful episodes of abstract movement choreographed by Crystal Pite. Page, watchful and worried, carries responsibility on her shoulders without bitterness.
The sisters’ quiet and sometimes dreamy isolation is interrupted on occasion by outsiders. Inevitably, these encounters aren’t always welcome, and Rozema maximizes the terrifying nature of one without exploiting her subject’s trauma. When things begin to be unsustainable for the sisters — when the physical demands of protecting themselves are overshadowed by psychic ones — she presents them not as victims but as creators of their own path. Trusting each other without question, they carry home wherever they must go in hopes that the world will someday return to the level of sanity they themselves have preserved.
Production company: Bron Studios, Rhombus Media
Cast: Ellen Page, Evan Rachel Wood, Max Minghella, Callum Keith Rennie, Wendy Crewson
Director-Screenwriter: Patricia Rozema
Producers: Niv Fichman, Aaron L. Gilbert, Ellen Page
Executive producers: Sriram Das, Haroon Saleem, Steve Shapiro, Jason Cloth, Allan Stitt, Kelly Morel, Kelly Bush Novak, Adrian Love
Director of photography: Daniel Grant
Production designer: Jeremy Stanbridge
Costume designer: Aieisha Li
Editor: Matthew Hannam
Music: Max Richter
Casting director: Candice Elzinga
Sales: WME
No rating, 100 minutes
