Hide Away is the newest film release from director/producer Chris Eyre who also chairs the Film Department at SFUAD. This review is by Margaret Van Dyk, Librarian and Interim Director of Fogelson Library.
[Warning: Spoiler Alert!]
I had the opportunity to see Chris Eyre’s new film,
“Hideaway” that premiered at The Screen on Friday, July 20th. I have
been looking forward to seeing it and can report that I was not disappointed.
In fact, I was utterly captivated.
Admittedly, I am interested in Chris’ work. I watch “Smoke Signals” once a year. I am a
fan.
“Hideaway” is a work of art by a gifted storyteller and
filmmaker. I got lost in it. It is the story of one man’s journey into grief, a
rite of passage that none of us escape. The abrupt and painful loss of his
wife, son and daughter, tragically killed in a car accident, propels him into a
dark journey that unfolds in the film.
Checking out from his life as a successful urbanite, the
Young Mariner (we never do learn his name), buys a dilapidated sailboat. Far
from all he once knew, it is moored at a marina somewhere near Traverse City,
Michigan. The boat and the man are in dire need of some fixing up.
He boards the boat in his 21st century regalia, a
business suit, and begins his dark journey into despair. Fixing up the boat is
his new occupation and avocation. We simultaneously watch the Young Mariner
keep his boat afloat even as he plummets to the depths of his despair at the
bottom of a bottle. Eventually, he floats back to life. His journey is
witnessed with empathetic recognition by the shoreline characters without names,
the “Waitress” and the “Old Mariner”.
The winter shores of Lake Michigan become the canvas on
which the filmmakers paint the story. One scene after another depicts the harsh
and lonely reality of winter. Through the immeasurable blue eyes of the Young
Mariner, it is a place of wonder and discovery.
His encounters are raw and he is an unwilling participant.
The water, the wildlife, and his human neighbors enter into his line of vision
and his experience. They change his experience. These forces pull him back to
life. He enters into a cold and elemental winter and emerges into spring. He
finds himself still breathing, and having beaten the demons that call him to
die, he lives. The boat is afloat and ready to sail. In the end, he chooses
life in lieu of sailing into the sunset.
I found the film beautiful; the story poetic, the
cinematography painterly, the acting deep. I don’t care what the jaded New York
critic says; “Hideaway” is a work of art. Perhaps one has to have lived, loved and lost to get it.
Margaret VanDyk
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| Chris Eyre on the set of Hide Away |
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| Chris Eyre discussing his new film at The Screen, Friday July 20. |
