Keyhole (now available on home video)

[KEYHOLE is now available on home video.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Hey kids, do you have your secret Guy Maddin decoder rings ready? I sure hope so, because otherwise you may find yourself utterly baffled by KEYHOLE, the latest film from the avant-garde Canadian filmmaker. On the surface this is a gangster movie with a little ghost story flavor for added zest. However, any notions that we're watching anything resembling a conventional film are dashed early on when, after a shootout with police, a group of gangsters separate themselves into two groups: those who are alive and those who are dead. The “dead” gangsters are then told to walk outside and report to the police, who will make sure they get to the morgue okay.

The plot, such as it is, concerns Ulysses (Jason Patric), head honcho of the aforementioned gangsters, trying to make his way through the various haunted corridors and locked doors of the house in order to find his wife Hyacinth (Isabella Rossellini). There's a certain dream logic to it all, but my limited knowledge of Freudian symbolism and dream interpretation isn't enough to decipher the message completely. I think it's about the main character's guilt for how he treated his family, but I could be completely wrong. Regardless of what it all means, or even if it means anything at all, KEYHOLE is chock full of Maddin's typically stunning visuals. Sometimes, that's enough. I'm just not entirely sure whether this is one of those times or not. 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.