by Jake Hjort, Contributing Writer
In Inside, we learn the story of Nemo (Willem Dafoe), an art thief who, after a heist gone wrong, finds himself trapped in a luxury Manhattan penthouse with no connection to the outside world. Struggling with dwindling resources, a malfunctioning thermostat, and a refrigerator that keeps playing The Macarena, Nemo must fight to escape before he loses his mind.
By and large, Inside exists as a vehicle to watch a great performance from Dafoe, and it succeed in that he certainly gives one. With the exception of a few dream sequences, Dafoe is completely alone for the majority of the film, interacting not with other actors, but instead with paintings, furniture, and fish. While having to carry 95% of the runtime, he completely sells the role of a man slowly losing his wits as his health deteriorates and his prospects for freedom dwindle. Unfortunately, one stellar performance does not a great film make.
Despite the best efforts of Dafoe, the film’s script greatly underserves its central character. I never had any emotional investment in Nemo, nor a strong desire to see him survive. We learn little of his backstory and nothing about his dreams or motivations. It’s mentioned early on that he likes art, but what has drawn him into a life of crime? Is this something he has gone into willingly, or, like the predicament he finds himself in now, a trap that he fell into and was unable to escape from? What does he have waiting for him outside of the penthouse, and why do we want him to succeed in returning to it? These are all questions that the movie is either uninterested in or incapable of answering.
Compare this to other movies in which we find a character trapped in isolation, such as Cast Away or The Martian. In those films, we get to know and understand the central characters, and with that, we build a deep empathy for them. You cheer when they succeed and cry when they fail, neither of which I felt with Nemo in Inside. Despite the fantastic performance, Nemo isn’t a fleshed out, three dimensional character at all; he’s just a thief who finds himself trapped.
Now, to be fair, Inside does have more positives than just Dafoe. This is the directorial debut of Vasilis Katsoupis, and he does a pretty good job overall — the film is well paced, and there’s some really interesting shot composition throughout. The production design of the penthouse is a wonderful blend of high-end luxury and brutalist oppression, perfect for the prison in which we find ourselves trapped, and great artwork is featured throughout the apartment.
Inside ultimately is a 90-minute, character-driven story that features little character development or story movement. What it does offer, however, is Willem Dafoe giving a performance which rivals some of his best, and that may very well be worth the cost of admission.
Score: 6/10
Inside is currently playing in limited theaters
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