Sundance: Downloading Nancy

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I think I’ve figured out why the three characters in Johan Renck’s Downloading Nancy scream and flail and swing golf clubs at people and engage in masochistic behavior. It can’t be explained through simple psychology. (In her notes, Maria Bello’s psychiatrist writes “patient thinks she’s unattractive.” “Duh,” Bello says in unison with the audience.) It can’t be the ominous droning score, which could almost be soothing in a different context. It might be the hideous decor of every single location, but that would probably elicit mere chuckles from most folks: those lamps, that wood panelling, that putting green in the basement.

No, the only thing that can explain such skin-cutting and total dysfunction is the oppressive green tint of the picture. It’s like working under fluorescent lights for 72 hours straight. After a ninety-minute sample I wanted to claw out my eyes, so I’m sure it would drive anyone who had to live in it toward self mutilation. The same hue covered The Wackness, but those characters were self-medicating; the folks in Downloading Nancy are trying to tough it out, and they’re failing miserably.

I’m not sure why green is in, but I’m surprised that even reliable cinematographer Christopher Doyle would succumb to the trend. Maybe someone saw the opening of Last Life in the Universe, the Thai film that Doyle shot for Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, paused the DVD and said, “Yeah, like that,” without pressing play and discovering that it’s the rich, brown middle where the film shines.

Downloading Nancy has no such visual break, and in some ways that’s fitting. Nancy’s marriage seems far beyond the point of resuscitation. She escapes from her distracted, insensitive husband to the Internet for conversation and virtual sex that often involves hurting herself physically, her own form of self-medication. But we don’t see much of that because the film picks up later, when all of the above is a foregone conclusion and Nancy has left home to meet her Internet companion, not for simple sex but for destruction.

This is a grim film from beginning to end, but it’s not without its merits. The performances are fully committed to the darkness, the fractured timeline is deftly conveyed (the presence of a dog and the marks on a forearm become signposts), and the dreaded green hue probably has the intended effect.

And yet I wish I understood how or why things came to this and knew more about the rope whose end Nancy has reached. I wish I’d been able to slip into the head of one of the characters, past the abraded skin and vibrating skull and into the hurting brain, but the psychobabble offered no entry, nor did the “Inspired by True Events” title that appeared at the end, thumbing its nose at anyone who’d been thinking, “Right. Give me a break.” There’s no abstracted subtext like in Marina de Van’s In My Skin, no emotional surface to caress.

There’s only pale green pain.

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1 Comment

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By Jason D on May 28, 2009

Obviously, you should not be writing movie reviews, if you missed the whole story.

For those who want a real review... The movie was a total cult-reality movie. (Not real, but it could be.)

The movie is not a hard drama, the undertone is dark and portrays the "Nothing", which the actors feel. Artistically, it was great. Movie-wise, it was not a "Bring your family to enjoy", type of barbie-doll movie.

Nancy, the main character, was apparently raped and abused to the point where she grew comfort in pain, as a sign of love. These rapes turned into acceptance-love, but ultimately destroyed her ability to have children. Her uncle, who was her mothers brother, raped her once every week, and abused her. When teen-Nancy told her mother that she wanted children, her mother called her a slut and locked her in a room for an undetermined amount of time.

Though there is no specifics to the wedding of Nancy's husband, I am sure it was one which her "Other", personality desired. (The normal Nancy, wanting a white-picket fence.)

She desired children, which she could not have, and her husband had no interest in children. He avoided the topic, as he avoided her self-abusive cutting. He was more into the prostitutes, who did not mind his odd sexual behavior. He had no clue how to fulfill her desires, as she desired pain as reward. This pain is what she grew-up with, and was, to her, a sign of doing good. She felt as if she was never doing good, never beautiful, never complete.

After going through hundreds of people who were just looking for cybering. She eventually finds "The one", who will take her into the place where she wants to be. After 15 years of being nothing more than a bed-warmer, and a sperm-napkin, she wanted that final exit. She also wanted to feel appreciated (abused), so that she could leave this world feeling good.

However, the one who was to release her, being a real man, thought he might be able to change her mind. He believed that he understood her, and that she just deeply wanted to be saved.

That was NOT what she wanted. Ultimately, at the last minute, he comes to realize what she wants, and delivers it. But that is not the end of the movie...

She asked him to do her a favor... He was asked to give her husband the same pain, the same emptiness, the same nothing, which she has felt for the past 15 years. This is where some people may loose the movie.

To give her husband this pain, the guy returns to the house, under the guise of being an internet service man. Once in the computer, the emails are shown to the husband, and printed. While reading the emails, the guy unzips his jacket to reveal a necklace which the husband gave to the wife. This leads to a non-defended beating with a club, and ends with the guy being bound and gagged.

Now the torture begins... for both of them. The guy's life is over. His wife left him, his two kids can no longer be seen, and he just killed a woman who he loved. This beating and whole ending to the movie, is the completion of her last wish. This all leads to 15 years of the husbands long torture.

The guy goes to prison, news covers the story every anniversary, the letters are still printed and being read every day, the wife's things stay around haunting the husband. All that nothingness lingering around and reminding him of his nothingness he created for his wife. The nothingness which lead to her decision to have her life put to rest.

That is not a spoiler... You have to watch the movie to see what you are missing. You are missing a lot if you go by the review posted here. Now you can actually understand what is going on, and what you see.