The Keeping Room (2014)

During the American Civil war two sisters and their black slave find themselves on the path of Sherman's March to the Sea. Two Union troops sent ahead of the main force, taking much relish in their task, target the women.This was in the dark section of Netflix, they really should create a bleak section for movies like this. Saying that, it is well made and acted. Although brutal there is no gore or nudity.The women have all kinds of hardships to contend with that are hard to totally comprehend today. Despite the obvious second and third class citizen status they have a more tangible lack of food, medicine and fuel. Not to mention the imminent arrival of a vengeful army operating a scorched earth policy.The characters are interesting and challengingly honest.The younger sister, not knowing any different, cannot grasp she is not superior to a black woman. The slave in turn seems overly phlegmatic; but then to survive as a slave you would have to be.Don't expect too many rainbows here, but a very good watch.

Lots of films attest to the fact that slow and ponderous doesn't ruin a movie's chance of success but as Daniel (Michael Caine starrer Harry Brown's director) Barber's slow and steady The Keeping Room also attest's to, slow and ponderous certainly doesn't make a movie and while The Keeping Room has moments of brilliance and sprinklings of sound shattering violence, this Civil War set drama fails to properly engage.The Keeping Room does offer a refreshing female orientated look at the American landscape of the Civil War war-torn country with Brit Marling's Augusta featuring alongside her sister Louise played by an increasingly grown up Hailee Steinfeld and house keep Mad played somewhat underwhelming by Muna Otaru and while Barber and his screenwriter Julia Hart should be commended for offering up a different take on the usual tropes of similar such films, The Keeping Room's overbearing sense of coldness and underdeveloped characters unhinges most of the films solid ground work.For a film with such a confined setting and small field of participants, The Keeping Room needed to make better use of its recognisable faces and while the always good Marling does well with limited scope and Steinfeld and the increasingly obscure like Sam Worthington as a hard drinking soldier have some nice moments, this won't be a film fans of any of these actors will be recalling in years to come thanks to a blunted message; it's hard to know exactly what the film is trying to say or what it is, a lacking home invasion thriller or commentary on females trapped in the Civil War landscape and at the end of the day not even an ending out of a more rounded film can up the film to another level.There's glimmers of a fairly astounding film here but they're only that, mere glimmers and when a low budgeted film such a this has such a talented cast and potential, The Keeping Room feels like a rather forgettable missed opportunity and despite its originality, Barber's film is not equal to the sum of its parts.2 raccoon bites out of 5

I am surprised to see that some people do not like this movie. May be they did not get the message this movie is sending. First , this movie wants to give you the sense of the violence and rampage that some stray Union soldiers conducted during the U.S. civil war which has seldom been reported in history. Second , it wants to show you the hardship and misery of those days' women who were left alone , to live and survive by themselves , when their husbands left for war. Third , it wants to convey this message to women , based on movie's currents of events , that , if they are united, resilient and determine, they then can overcome and survive the worst threats. Fourth , it tells women that they must learn everything they need to learn to defend themselves , that is , how to fight , how to shoot , how to plan against intruders and how to rely on themselves to survive. It tells them how to believe in themselves in that they can overcome dangerous situations during the coarse of their lives. I believe the director and scenario writer have done a superb job in conveying this message to its viewers.

There's a merit on doing all female leads drama thriller set on volatile era of Civil War, especially when there's social prejudice involved. However, aside from some admittedly fine performance, the movie feels clunky and slow. It doesn't have the intricacy or characterization beyond the basic formula of "there are bad men coming", and even that takes the film about half its runtime to get the pace going.This is the story of three women, one of whom is colored, as they defend their home from outsiders. Each woman might not be easily relatable at first, but the acting as well as decent investment time to them manage to deliver a few heavy thought provoking and intimate scenes. Brit Marling as the oldest one keeps a strong presence even though her character may be lacking in term of actual strength.Muna Otaru as Mad, the colored housekeeper or technical maid, has a unique personality as the caretaker of the girls and also her own woman. As for the antagonist Sam Worthington makes do, he's decent but his motivation doesn't have the same focus as the girls', which means less connection to the character as he basically stumbles on the predicament he himself creates. The cinematography works by keeping an intentionally bleak and less stylish version of Wild West.This is a deliberate pace for drama, not action or thriller. It does feel terribly slow at times, not in a good Tarantino build up style. Furthermore, there's not much cat-and-mouse cerebral standoff, which feels like a missed opportunity, especially when it could've used the setting as intense backdrop. Panic Room with Jodie Foster had trade of wit between protagonist and antagonist that created depth and utilized its premise, while here it's more of random gunslinging action.The Keeping Room has a couple of good performances, especially geared towards heavy themes such as race prejudice and violence towards women. However, instead of putting more focus on home invasion to elevate the drama, its slow pace removes any thrill to what could've been a powerful commentary of an era and its lingering issues.