Two Gates of Sleep (Alistair Banks Griffin, 2010): USA

Reviewed by Tommy Gilbert. Viewed at the Mann Chinese Theater, AFI Film Festival, Hollywood.

Two Gates of Sleep is a film that explores the strength of devotion and morals when two brothers navigate through the forests of Louisiana to find the final resting place for their passed mother. The protagonist and presumably younger brother, Jack (Brady Corbet) is challenged with loneliness and isolation when it comes down to just himself dragging the homemade coffin through the river and into the woods. Is it possible for a single human to do such a task alone? Does he push himself too hard? These questions are left to be answered as this nearly silent film draws to a close. But they are among many questions that never get answered as the end credits start to roll.

Artistically, Two Gates of Sleep is a masterpiece saturated with unbelievably flawless cinematography that stresses the beauty and importance of nature, meaningful symbolism, and powerful messages. Entertainingly, let’s just say it may not be quite what comedy seekers and action/adventurers would like to spend money on. Because the film lacks so much dialogue, it is really up to the viewer to figure out what’s going on and why it’s happening. This tactic pushes the audience to make a mental investment in solely the emotions through which the brothers are going. Anger at the law, depression from death, empowerment to do what the mother would have wanted them to do. And once again, the questions continue. Is the sons’ pain really what the mother would have wanted? Would she have rather been buried where Jack finds her? More questions that can’t be answered. . . .

Thematically, this film deals heavily with the loss of loved ones and the faithfulness of ‘doing what’s right’ and strays down the unkempt path of meaning and significance through cinematography. While the plot in this film is basic and comprehensive, the emotions expressed through the brothers who lose all they have hits perfectly in the center of the heart. This film is an exhibition of the honor that these two brothers uphold, the idealistic image of a parent who hopes that her children will take care of her when she is gone. Perhaps Jack and Louis (David Call) take their mother’s love of nature too far, but maybe it is because they have nothing left in the world between a TV that doesn’t get reception and a gutted deer hanging out for the flies.

This film ultimately bleeds the light of hope onto the prevalence and preservation of nature. And with such little dialogue, nothing remains in the film but the loud presence of symbolism and the burning desire to finish the only task at hand. In a way, Two Gates of Sleep is an adventure—an adventure of life and death—and perhaps the unanswered questions simply mirror the unknown of both realms.