The premise of Bokeh is that while on a couple’s retreat to Iceland, two Americans wake up one morning to an empty planet devoid of any other humans. Iceland seems to be empty, but live-view cameras around the world show the same. No new emails, no one answering their phones…everyone just vanished.
15 minutes into the film I found myself wondering where this story could even go for another hour and fifteen minutes. As one would expect the isolation and homesickness start to weigh on the main characters’ psyche and they begin to go mad.
The film shines with beautiful cinematography and the absolutely gorgeous Icelandic locations used throughout. And while the film did begin to pick up on urgency near the end, I found it a bit anti-climactic. I love open ended films. And it’s not that I want every film to explain every single phenomenon to dim-witted viewers (I scoff at the folks who want ABC to explain the LOST myth), but I would have much rather the film ended inside of a government lab with fake memory implants, or on an alien vessel as they watch their experiment unfold (Kang and Kodos style, perhaps?). Would have wrapped things up quite nicely. For this guy anyway. I’m not a big fan of mysterious artsy endings. But if those float your boat, you’ll surely love this film.
For me the jury is still out as far as the writers’/directors’ motives for shooting this film (and bringing over 600 Kickstarter backers to come along the journey with them). Every film has a theme or message it’s trying to get across, and I’m not quite sure what it was here.
Is it simply posing the question: what would you do if you were the last human left on earth?
Is it trying to prove that god works in mysterious ways and that humans will never and should not try to understand his or her ways?
Is it that no matter how hard you try, life will always sucker punch you?
I couldn’t tell you. Maybe you should watch the movie and enlighten me in the comments section below.
My rating: A-
