Driftwood (1997)
When Sarah walks alone along the desolate beach one day she find an unconscious man, who has been brought to land by the waves. When he awakens he doesn't remember anything. He has no name and no past. His dependence lies on Sarah. A role that makes her forget her loneliness and she decides to therefore lie about their situation... She says that they are situated on an island, where no one can reach them. From now, his life lies in her hands.
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Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
When an unknown man with amnesia (Spader) is washed up on a secluded beach of Northern Ireland, he is taken in by a solitary eccentric spinster (Brochet)and it becomes immediately apparent that she has "control issues." Since he has a broken leg, he's temporarily at her mercy and tries to humor her as she becomes increasingly strange. Brochet plays "Sarah" so well that the viewer soon surmises that beneath her elfin winsomeness lies some dangerous emotional and mental instability which will eventually erupt. She succeeds in seducing the stranger and thereafter regards him as her personal possession. The arguments with her old harpy of a mother are telling. When the couple have a special candlelit dinner commemorating his sexual surrender, she appears wearing a weird lacy gown strongly suggesting the mad Miss Havisham in "Great Expectations." Viewer interest will be maintained until the inevitable tragic result of the man breaking free of the coerced relationship which bears a familiar parallel in reverse to "The Collector."
DRIFTWOOD is an outstanding movie focusing on a woman's point of view about men, sex and having a "fantasy man" as a captive in every sense of the word. The acting is superb...James Spader is very believable as an injured sailor rescued by a lonely artist who, unfortunately, is quite mad. Women will appreciate how the camera focuses on the beauty of a man's body and sexual pleasures from a woman's perspective (refreshing!!). The actress playing "Sarah" is absolutely wonderful in a difficult, demanding character study of a woman tormented by the ghosts of her past who seeks only to find love---no matter what it takes. This film is sure to become an "art film" favorite, especially among women who have always dreamed of having a beautiful lover on a remote island, albeit with a different outcome. Enjoy...
I thought that this movie was lovely, it had a great plot and the actors did their jobs well. I don't think that this was a slow movie. I would suggest that any human watch Driftwood if they want to see a beautiful yet tragic film.
It's a movie about a woman who finds a man on a seashore next to her home. She is a sculptor, she takes him in, he doesn't remember his name, she tells him they're alone on the island. To us it's obvious she's lying, and a matter of time that they will end up in bed and he'll find out she's lying. Not boring, just not very interesting. And her talking to her deceased mother is really redundant. The ending is SO annoying and foreseen. Probably a nice story, bad movie though.