In Darkness is an interesting case. It’s like two very distinctive, very different halves of separate stories came crashing into each other. It’s not even that it doesn’t all come together, but it is worth noting that the film operates on seemingly two separate modes here.
The first half is far more interesting. Taking an interesting premise in following Sofia (Natalie Dormer), a blind musician who one night finds herself hearing something of a struggle in the room above her, which ends with her neighbor, Veronique (Emily Ratajkowski), falling to her death. Sofia is rather unassuming at first, but through circumstance, is drawn into the case, which pulls her deeper and deeper into the more sketchy underbelly of London.
This section of the film leans really hard on its film noir and Hitchcockian influences, playing with a lot of classical tropes, but with the added sense of tension that comes when the protagonist is not only a woman, but one that is blind. She is very much of the type of character who is caught completely out of their element and is forced into a journey that makes her question the things she thought she knew.
However, it’s when it is revealed that Veronique is the daughter of Milos Radic (Jan Bijvoet), a businessman who is facing charges of war crimes from the Bosnian War. At that point, the story begins a series of revelations that seem to get increasingly more ludicrous, and obvious in its attempt to be unpredictable. We’re introduced to Marc (Ed Skrein), who may or may not be on the same page as his sister, Alex (Joely Richardson), in terms of their complicated involvement with Radic. The plotting gets complex to borderline convoluted.
Despite not being the kind of story I was initially interested in with what the first half setup, the cycle of twists and turns that the story took were still very entertaining. A lot of that is due to the craft that is brought by director and co-writer, Anthony Byrne, who has a keen eye for stylish imagery and a sense of mood and momentum. There’s some wonderful use of color, emphasizing the noir-ish atmosphere, with lots of blues, reds, purples. One fight sequence even had his camera focus exclusively on the shadows on a wall. He clearly knows his way around a camera and how to use classic, stylistic flourishes to inform the story and characters.
One really big but effective stylistic choice is the specific use of sound. The sounds design in the film is immaculate, and it’s a shame it’s a tiny release that you’re more likely to catch on VOD than in theaters because the sound design alone would be worth admission. Being that Sofia is blind, the film plays with the way she would perceive the world around her, and where she puts her attention. It’s something we’ve certainly seen before in other films with blind characters, but it’s execution here is still wonderful.
Natalie Dormer is also the reason the film remains as effortlessly watchable as it is. She actually co-wrote the film with Byrne (who is also her husband), so it’s interesting to see her really take command in where her character goes, what she experiences, how she experiences them. Even within the more muscular filmmaking, there are feminine touches, where I assume she made her contributions, especially in some of the small details about her character, and her backstory. While the turns do feel ridiculous at a while, there are some nuances in place that manage to ground it effectively for the most part. She, of course, is a great screen presence, and not just with her instantly recognizable look, but also in the way she commands attention through glances and a deep dedication to the material.
In Darkness has a number of compelling things to offer, but you do have to be willing to swallow a lot of strange story choices in the second half, which I was eventually comfortable with (though some of the final moments didn’t totally sit right with me). It still offers a cool, modern noir that evokes Hitchcock with a compelling leading lady. It uses its gimmick in a way that doesn’t come across as cheap, and it allows for some fun, stylish moments that are genuinely thrilling and suspenseful. It won’t blow your mind, but it’s a slick distraction that doesn’t demand too much of your time (the hundred minute runtime goes by fairly quick), and I wouldn’t mind seeing more from Dormer and Byrne.