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BERLINALE 2012 Panorama / Ireland

Dollhouse improvisations

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The third feature film by Kristen Sheridan (daughter of more famous Jim) Dollhouse [+see also:
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is apparently a mostly improvised piece about familiar characters in a familiar setting. While it is intermittently engaging and features some strong set-pieces, on the whole it is incoherent and wandering, and will probably feel 'too arty' for most audiences.

Five teenagers - those “hoodies” who are so feared in the UK and Ireland since shirts with hoods became popular in modern popular subculture - break into a posh apartment and start doing the expected: drinking, taking pills (pot, speed, Ecstasy), raiding the food and vandalising the place. It is soon revealed that the apartment in fact belongs to the parents of one of their number, Jeannie (Seana Kerslake), who took off her shoes when the group entered, and who has another secret (if it is really a secret at all, which will depend on spectators’ perceptions) to be revealed at the climax.

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But Jeannie, Eanna (Johnny Ward), Denise (Kate Stanley Brennan), Shane (Shane Curry) and Darren (Ciaran McCabe) trash the place regardless, until 'boy next door' Robbie (Jack Reynor) comes knocking on the door. The atmosphere becomes more intimidating and ups the stakes, but the film does not really lift off.

There are long passages of music montages, both classical and indie pop (including a powerful track by Dead Man Bones, Lose Your Soul), and Sheridan uses hand-held camera work (by Colin Downey) to go around, under and over the characters in a constant choreography of ad-libbed movements. These scenes do have a certain dreamy atmosphere and, while they are nice to see and hear, they feel more like strange music videos than a film.

There is a dominant sense of danger for almost the whole running time, and a viewer expects something very violent to happen at any moment - but it never does. Of course, there is sex, and it is one of the most impressive scenes, largely thanks to Brennan’s excellent performance. The rest of the young cast is also very good, bursting with teenage energy, angst and hormones. But the feeling of improvisation never leaves the audience, which for this film turns out to be a bad thing. Dollhouse was produced by Dublin-based Factory Films.

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