We'll never know how The Shadow knew, but these days when evil, unthinkable events unfold we desperately try to reason them out. Though we think we can "sympathize" with certain crimes perhaps, generally no one can or wants to relate to the pedophile. First-time Austrian director Markus Schleinzer makes an audacious debut with his drama Michael, the story of a timid 35-year-old insurance salesman with a dreadful secret: he's holding a 10-year-old boy, Wolfgang, captive in his basement. Schleinzer has the cold, critical eye of Hitchcock or Chabrol that produces the appropriate cringe factor for such a story, which is told through the title character over a period of five months. What unfolds is a bleak tale of ordinariness gone wrong. Michael's exterior life is a dull as his work and his office. He's closed off and tight, yet receives invitations to skiing weekends and promotions at work. When told by his pals on their trip that the barmaid has eyes for him, he almost dutifully remains behind listening to her tales of single motherhood and then, rather embarrassingly, attempts to have sex with her.
The only times Michael opens up is when the metal window barriers go down on his bland suburban home and he ventures into the basement past the foam-covered door. Trying to create a normalcy with his victim, Michael sets the table for dinner as though his dinner guest doesn't lived locked in his basement. Turning on the lights in the boys prison is as everyday as eating and brushing his teeth. They watch TV together until Michael announces enough; the boy's straggling to watch for a few minutes more subtly covers the desire to forestall his fate of sexual slavery. Cut to the encounter being noted in Michael's diary. Though not a story of Stockholm Syndrome, the film documents the taut relationship of a victim and his kidnapper who both find themselves in a hopeless situation several months in.
Schleinzer has done a remarkable job of creating a horror story out of the mundane. Lingering shots of fluorescent lights, office interiors, and car garages emphasize the ordinariness of Michael's life (and kept reminding me of photographs by Bernd and Hilda Becher) and he often just sets the camera down and lets the scene unfold in front of it. His years of being a casting director certainly worked to his advantage as well. Michael Fuith as Michael is an exceptional tightly-wound powder keg who, when he does go off, shows the hysteric desperation of a man who has dug himself into a deep dark hole and cannot get out. David Rauchenberger plays Wolfgang with an sullen authenticity that ups the creepiness factor of this film ten-fold. It's achingly honest and makes it well worth the price of admission. One does not want to reveal the end of this film but suffice it to say Schleinzer gives his tale enough quirky twists and splashes of dark humor to give the viewer a thoroughly satisfying cinematic experience.
Michael will have a two week engagement February 15 - 28 at Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street with daily screenings at 1:15, 3:15, 6:00, 8:00 and 10:00
