Starring: Saskia Reeves, Robert Reynolds, Jacqueline McKenzie
Opens August 11 at: Lumiere Cinema, Brighton Bay, Forest Hills
Rating: ***
IN WHAT could easily have been another predictable story of the fall of colonialism in Vietnam, Pauline Chan instead offers a dark and thoughtful portrait of human nature. Using the political turmoil of the time as an initial reference point, Traps immediately pulls the imminent revolution into the lives of the protagonists, turning interpersonal relationships into a microcosm of the explosive events that surround them.
Brought into Vietnam at the request of the French government, English couple Louise and Michael (Saskia Reeves and Robert Reynolds) are put up at a rubber plantation occupied by the brooding Frenchman, Daniel (Sami Frey) and his sulkily precocious daughter, Viola (Jacqueline McKenzie). What initially seemed to be an assignment to be carried out at Louise and Michael's discretion quickly proves to be an exercise in propaganda: within the first few hours it is clear they are only to report on the benefits of the French occupation.
But simmering below the surface of every encounter is the obvious but unspoken fact that the French can no longer keep a lid on the civil war that is brewing. The Viet Minh are ready for revolt, and caught in the middle are those who have friends on both sides, including Daniel and Viola, whose main manservant has been a communist for years, unbeknown to anyone on the plantation.
The arrival of Michael and Louise at this critical stage, and Louise's clumsy attempts to play peacemaker in a situation way out of her league, sets off a chain reaction that tests every relationship on the plantation, including her own marriage. By the time she realises she is in over her head, events have run out of control and the revolution sweeps over their lives, wiping away everything but the instinct to survive and the most base elements of the characters' natures. What is left, when the tides of war subside, changes their perceptions of each other forever, old bonds are broken and new ones forged in their place.
All of this takes place with a minimum of action - Traps is an actors' film, eschewing violence and opting for intensity and drama instead. Although Saskia and Reynolds seem a bit flat for the first half of Traps, the unfolding events seem to round out their characters by the sheer force of the storyline.
McKenzie, too, seems out of step in her first few scenes, but, as the complexities of the 16-year-old Viola are revealed, she gains a definite screen presence that outshines most of the cast. By using a static camera and playing down the backdrop, Traps exudes the tension of an impending tropical hurricane that threatens to mow down any minutiae of humanity caught in its path.