Darkness comes to the suburb
In the riveting, masterfully executed “Harmonium,” bad karma pays a visit to a family — and overstays its welcome. It’s a bleak film, no doubt, yet it remains engrossing throughout with its genuinely surprising twists and outstanding acting.
Toshio (Kanji Furutachi, very good) leads a boring life in a drab Japanese suburb, and family conversations at the dinner table seem to barely register with him. But his life turns from dull to disastrous when old acquaintance Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano, superb), fresh out of the pokey, shows up at his doorstep.
Much to the chagrin of Toshio’s religious wife, Akie (Mariko Tsutsui, excellent), Toshio allows Yasaka to stay at the house, without her permission or a reasonable explanation. Akie is also not amused when Yasaka emerges from the bathtub in next to nothing, but she changes her tune when the stranger gives harmonium lessons to her young daughter, who clearly is not a prodigy of the instrument.
At first, the proceedings come off as a complex love triangle and a wry examination of suburban malaise, but family secrets start to emerge, and an unexpected tragedy keeps building upon itself. Director Koji Fukada (who won a jury award at Cannes for this film) never resorts to melodramatics and instead allows the carefully calibrated performances to give the movie its disquieting power.
It’s a testament to any film (and its screenplay) when there are many long scenes of people conversing in barren rooms and we hang on every word, every expression, every gesture. We can feel the characters’ claustrophobia, but unfortunately for them, an even worse fate is waiting outside. It’s truly unsettling.
MDrama. Starring Luis “Luca” Ortega, Mauricio Isaac, Joel Figueroa. Directed by Alejandro Guzmán Alvarez. In Spanish with subtitles. (Not rated. 105 minutes.)