Review
Liz (Tatiana Maslany) and Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland) are celebrating their first anniversary at Malcolm's secluded cabin in the woods. They're an odd couple: Liz is a free-spirited artist, and Malcolm's a reserved doctor, as beige as the cardigan he gifts her. She's anxious about where they are on the relationship escalator, unsure whether she wants to keep climbing, especially since this romantic getaway feels like a pending proposal and Malcolm's mixed signals aren't helping. Otherwise, dinner that night goes well until Darren, Malcolm's obnoxious cousin, arrives unannounced and ruins the vibe.
After Darren leaves, Liz tries to reset the mood, but Malcolm seems even more avoidant, deflecting her advances. The next day, with Malcolm called to work, Liz searches the cabin to uncover whatever secrets he may be hiding. But as the day grows stranger and more disorienting, it starts to feel like the cabin itself and the surrounding woods are hiding secrets of their own.
Osgood Perkins' films are very vibes-forward, rich in atmosphere and visual composition. Normally, I find he can marry that with a slow-burn exploration of a film's themes, but Keeper feels like all the signposts of what Perkins is trying to do are there, yet disconnected. Dream-like visuals and lens/focus techniques should be highlighting the surreality of Liz's experience, but they feel more like a mood board of cool cinematic shots than a unified visual language. The dialogue and interactions between Liz and Malcolm suggest a story about relationship dynamics at the outset, but then they spend most of the movie apart. The horror moments build with dread and promise to deepen the mystery of what's really happening, but they evaporate before anything actually happens.
This creates an impressionistic experience that could make Keeper feel like a movie to be felt rather than followed until the climax undercuts it with an abrupt folklore dump that removes any mystery or ambiguity. Furthermore, the reveal of what's really happening doesn't feel connected to the movie's themes or anything that came before, leading to an ending that's superficially cathartic or triumphant but lands hollow.
Keeper isn't without some admirable elements. Tatiana Maslany's performance is the one sign of life in an otherwise lethargic 90+ minutes. She's cycling between frustration, paranoia, and exhaustion throughout, building to genuine terror and desperation in the climax. The production design of Malcolm's ultra-modernist cabin in the middle of the woods feels out of place and reinforces Liz's doubts and Malcolm's caginess. The designs of the folklore elements are some of the best visuals in the movie, uniquely disturbing, making me wish they were deployed more throughout the story.
Unfortunately, they aren't enough to save the film from being a dull, vague affair, unable to find a center of gravity for all its orbiting parts.
