Inland

Fridtjof Ryder’s directorial debut begins with so much promise it’s frustrating. Opening with a young boy gazing into the depths of the luscious English countryside, his face out of focus, a sudden close-up shows him call for his mother to be met only with the chatter of birdsong. Cut to the boy, now a man, as he struggles with poor mental health in a clinical medical setting. Unfortunately it’s a downhill viewing experience from there.

Inland follows our protagonist, an unnamed young man of Romani descent (Rory Alexander), as he searches for his missing mother. Visions from his past become increasingly real and blur into reality, causing him to seek answers with help from his father-figure Denleavy (Mark Rylance).

After an encouraging start, Inland morphs into an arthouse student film with very little depth to be found. Despite an exciting approach to cinematography from Ravi Doubleday, there is a lot to be desired in Ryder’s script. The film is labeled as a ​‘modern fairy tale’ due to its vague mention of Romani folklore, but these themes are never discussed outside of ominous one-liners. Conversations between characters are meaninglessly benign or extremely heavy-handed. It is actually quite hard to hear much of the dialogue because of the often muttered delivery, while a croaky voiceover from the protagonist’s mother Lizzie (Kathryn Hunter) pops up inexplicably throughout the film, overused to the point of annoyance.

The plot is as hard to decipher as the dialogue – not even reading the online summary gave me much of a clue, and I found myself minimally invested as a result. The sparse, mysterious approach to filmmaking cannot be intriguing – Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson is a prime example of how it can work to great effect – but the characters need to be compelling enough to enjoy watching their quiet journey for the length of a feature film. Ryder’s nameless protagonist simply does not have much of a personality beyond being out of his mind.

However, there are some strengths in Ryder’s debut. Rory Alexander does a brilliant job with what he is given, portraying the lost protagonist with perfect puppy dog eyes, while Mark Rylance gives his all to the role of the mumbling mechanic Dunleavy. It is strange to see the Dunkirk actor dropped into this low-budget flick, but it gives the film a glimmer of star power. Ryder’s inclusion of hallucinatory sequences is at times spooky and disconcerting, elevated by Bartholomew Mason’s haunting folk score.Naturalistic noises such as the creaking of oak trees make their way into urban environments, creating a real clash of auditory experiences.

Ideas like this could have improved the psychological thriller tenfold if they were only more connected to the narrative. They feel like the epitome of style over substance, a collection of random images mushed together to mediocre effect. Ryder seems to be a director to watch out for, but the lack of clear narrative here is often frustrating to sit through.