BEFORE: Today is Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) and I wish I had time to mark the occasion, but I don't. The best I could hope for is that someone in my movie today has some kind of connection to the Star Wars universe (unfortunately no, not that I'm aware of, anyway) so really the best I can do is keep TBS on in the background while I'm watching TV today, so in between shows I can catch some glimpses of my favorite saga. Or I can keep the TV on while I sleep and absorb some of it subconsciously. I'd love to re-watch "Solo: A Star Wars Story" but I can't, I don't have an extra two hours, not if I want to stay on schedule. I'll just have to keep "Star Wars" in my heart until this become a more federally-recognized holiday. (Special shout-out to Peter Mayhew, who passed away earlier this week - maybe the 2nd or third SW actor I met at San Diego Comic-Con, and the 3rd actor in my SW autograph collection.)
Matthew McConaughey carries over again from "White Boy Rick", and I haven't even cleared the McConaughey category, because of "The Dark Tower", but there's no time for that either - Mother's Day is coming up, and I'm on a tight schedule.
AFTER: Here's a film that's on Netflix, and I managed to get around to watching it before it was removed from the service - one of life's little victories, I suppose. Netflix sent me a notification on my phone that told me I was "great at finding movies". Gee, thanks, Netflix, and you're super great at deleting them before I can watch them!
There is a real place nicknamed the "Suicide Forest", it's the Aokigahara Forest in Japan - those innovative Japanese have come up with so many modern conveniences, like vending machines that dispense fried chicken (and also used women's underwear) that it's probably no wonder that they found a way to make suicide more convenient - you just go HERE and hang yourself, or take some pills, don't worry about the mess, we'll clean it up. Umm, congratulations, Japan?
We see Arthur Brennan as he's traveling to Japan, he's booked a one-way trip and has no luggage to check, which should have set off some alarm bells right there. He's obviously planning short-term, so it's a wonder that the airline clerk doesn't say, "Suicide, right?" It's like if you see someone in Home Depot buying zip ties, a Sawz-all, and a whole bunch of plastic sheeting while trying to look really casual - a cashier should probably call the cops, if they're paying attention.
The story of WHY Arthur Brennan is there in Suicide Forest is told gradually over the course of the film via flashbacks, and it's a little twisty, when we first see him with his wife they're fighting all the time, over his lack of ambition and her drinking, so it feels like maybe their relationship is circling the drain, but then things between them get worse, but also a little better. Then something very bad but also extremely ironic happens, and I'm not sure if counts as a call-back to "The Sweet Hereafter", but it does kind of feel like it in a way.
But in the present timeline, Arthur notices a man stumbling through the forest who's in a bad way, he's bleeding and delirious and he can't find the trail to get out. Arthur puts his own suicide on hold to help this other man, and this gives him a renewed purpose in life, to stay alive at least long enough to help out another person. Over time he bonds with this Japanese man, who conveniently understands and speaks English, learns a little about what brought the other man to Suicide Forest, and also shares his story with him (and us).
There are many setbacks along the way, and at one point Arthur falls down a ravine, which called to mind "127 Hours". But there were also implications that the forest is more than it seems to be, that it might be haunted with spirits, so in a way it also feels like maybe somebody told director Gus Van Sant that his films need to be a bit more like M. Night Shyamalan's or something. Only the story resolution got very hokey in the end here.
Surprisingly, they didn't shoot this film in the real Aokigahara Forest, although some of the movie was filmed in Japan - but the forest seen here is really in Sutton, Massachusetts, a state-owned recreation area known (perhaps appropriately) as Purgatory Chasm. I guess all forests look alike in the end, unless you're an expert on what trees and plants grow in Japan. But the flashback scenes were set in Massachusetts (the delivery address on his wife's Amazon package reads Natick, MA) so they filmed those in Foxborough, a couple towns away from where I grew up. I had an aunt that lived in Natick for a while, so I've spent time there, too.
Also starring Ken Watanabe (last heard in "Isle of Dogs"), Naomi Watts (last seen in "Vice"), Katie Aselton (last seen in "The Gift"), Jordan Gavaris, Anna Friedman, Richard Levine, Bruce Norris, Nada Despotovich, Christopher Tarjan, Charles Van Eman.
RATING: 4 out of 10 park rangers
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