Fossil (2014)

Directed by: Alex Walker
Country: UK

Movie Review: “Fossil” is the directorial debut feature film from Alex Walker, who also wrote, edited and produced. The story focuses in a married couple, Paul and Camilla, whose increasingly cold relationship take them to try an injection of fresh air when they decided to spend some days in a secluded house in the French countryside. Soon we learn that something is wrong, since the visibly distant Camilla says she needs some space and is taking the birth control pill against her husband's will. Suddenly, their vacation plans will be altered when another couple, Richard and Julie, is caught using the swimming pool without authorization. Camilla, needing different people to talk, promptly invites them to stay while Paul is very disturbed with the situation. Anxiety and pressure will increase among the quartet, and tragedy will mark this small vacation. Not totally fresh in concept and with a flawed script, “Fossil” lives from embarrassing situations and tension (sexual included), which were never enough to make me absorbed in what it wanted to show. In the last 20 minutes, its dramatic tones are transformed in thriller, taking us to a dark ending and making us wonder what will be the future of Paul and Camilla, who added another problem to their tainted relationship without resolving the ones they already had. The picture was shot in warm tones and the performances were consistent, but like Paul and Camilla, the story needed some kind of freshness since there’s nothing here we haven’t seen before, aggravated with a few scenes depicted with disregard.