RETREAT

UK, 2011, 90 minutes, Colour.
Thandie Newton, Cillian Murphy, Jamie Bell, Jimmie Yuill.
Directed by Carl Tibbetts.

Probably best not to walk into this one or hire or download it without knowing something about it. It begins one way and develops in quite another, with some twists along the way. It tells the story of a husband and wife with problems, going back to an idyllic island retreat where they once were happy, to find some closeness and love. Then it turns into a contagion action thriller with echoes of the end of the world. Retreat for reflection, then a retreat from the infected world.

The location photography of sea and island are beautiful and, for a while, we are treated to a domestic drama. She is writing a memoir, regretting that her husband did not take the birth (abortion?) of their now dead child seriously, he trying his limited best to rectify the relationship. If an audience began watching the attempts at reconciliation and the activities of two isolated people, they might think it was going to go on and on and become tedious. The couple is played very well by fine actors, Thandie Newton, as a miserable and despondent but finding some inner strength, and Cillian Murphy, who was in a similarly themed 28 Days Later, matching her as a pleasant but less fortitudinal husband.

Then Jamie Bell turns up. Who is he? How did he become so badly injured? Is he truly military? What is his babble about a world contagion and the need to barricade themselves into the isolated house? Should he be believed? Or is he mad and making the whole thing up?

Husband and wife do not take kindly to this eruption into their lives. They spend the rest of the film, reacting against the intruder, she especially, he more compliant. Doubts begin because there is little activity outside the house. Are they caught as hostages in a potential siege? Jamie Bell has chosen a career of character rather than leading roles and is quite dominating in this one.

Actually, the developments are not quite what might have been anticipated, with some unexpected twists and a downbeat ending. Interesting but not essential.

1. The variety of genres, the change in the middle of the film? The effect? Expectations?

2. The titles, the couple on retreat, their retreat from the virus?

3. The visuals of the island, beauty, the sea, the forest, the house, the interiors and exteriors? The musical score?

4. The introduction to Kate and Martin, Doug and his ferrying them to the island, his cheerful talk, the house, communication? The register and their resolution in 2002 to come again? The nature of this return? The prospect of self-discovery and reconciliation? Tough drama?

5. Kate, upset, children, her pregnancy, the hospital, Martin absent? Her tensions, reactions, harsh with Martin, yet loving him? Writing her story? The meals, the talk? Martin, his character, quieter, his hopes, his activities on the island, jogging? Communications? The generator, the blackout, the prospects for a reconciliation?

6. Jack, his arrival, the couple watching him, his collapse, their tending him, the military uniform, their care, his waking? His injuries? His story, the contagion, spread throughout the world, the isolation, boarding up the house, the windows (but not the skylight)? His control of the couple, the meals? The generator – and his not fixing it (but actually fixing it)?

7. Kate, her violent reaction to Jack? Martin believing him? The gun, taking it and hiding it? Kate and the developing tension? Martin and his acceptance? Compliance? Jack and his despotic behaviour?

8. Jack locking the couple in the room, Martin getting out through the skylight? Discovering Doug and his wife dead? Kate, her attempt to get the gun, speaking nicely to Jack? His reaction? Jack outwitting the couple? Their turning the tables on him?

9. Jack and his story, the test case for the virus, his wife and her death, his fears, the virus inside him, wanting to control?

10. Martin, becoming ill, the blood, the virus, his death? Kate’s reaction?

11. Kate, the rifle, confronting Jack, the discussion, shooting him?

12. Kate, her escape, the helicopter appearing, her being shot?

13. The downbeat ending? A drama of characters? The science fiction overtones – the variation on the contagion theme?