Review No.83: The Divide

So as well as the previous film Edge my next film The Divide came at the same time courtesy of LoveFilm and while I had a small smattering of knowledge of what I was getting into with Carol Morley's film I didn't however with this film. The Divide starts incredibly strong as we see nuclear explosions tear up New York City a group of tenants in a tower block rush to the basement where their janitor has a bunker. As well as the janitor, played by Terminator/Aliens alumni Michael Biehn, there are a pair of lovers, three brothers, an older gentleman and a mother and child all of whom have to survive together. The premise of the film then essentially is how long does it take before civilisation breaks down and everybody turns on everyone else? The answer is surprisingly not that long as almost immediately Milo Vetimiglia's Josh starts shouting at everyone while it becomes clear that Biehn's Mickey is hiding stuff from his fellow survivors. Though attempts at an escape are made it becomes clear that a group of men with Hasmat suits are carrying out some sort of experiment which means they have to kidnap the little girl. After being sealed in by these men things just break down as the majority of the characters become little more than animals as there is rape, torture and someone being set on fire before one of them finally escapes.

The opening few shots of The Divide promise so much as director Xavier Gens has obviously spent a lot of time thinking how he would like to destroy New York however is skill for designing these sort of shots is wasted in a film that is confined to a single setting that features characters who are mainly unlikeable. The cast aren't best-served by their characters however Lauren German does her best with plucky Eva while Rosanna Arquette's  Marilyn's dissension into madness is portrayed fairly well and Biehn is able to do creepy fairly well but that's about it. The major problem is that we don't spend a lot of the time getting to know these characters before they completely breakdown this is especially true of Courtney B Vance's Delvin of whom we learn little off at all. In fact I found a lot of the second half of this film hard to watch as the brothers take in turns raping Marilyn and tearing off Mickey's fingers. By the time the end finally came I was glad however I wished that these characters hadn't made it down to the basement in the first place as surely there were some nicer people who lived in their apartment block. Maybe that wouldn't have made for as much of a provocative film as this one is but I maybe would've cared a bit more when they started to die. With brief hints to the sort of film Gens wanted to make at the end of the day this was vulgar, unlikeable stuff for the most part and how it made it to the cinema is a mystery in itself.

Verdict: Though it has a good start increasingly vulgar material coupled with unlikeable characters means this one only gets a 2/10