The Intended

Rating:
Summary: EXOTIC JUNGLE NOIR
Review: From the Danish Film Institute, INTENDED (New Video Group) is Kristian Levring's sexually charged, jungle noir set in 1924 Malaysia. Fleeing eastern European depression, high-minded Sarah (co-writer Janet Mcteer) and her younger lover Hamish arrive at a small ivory trading post deep in the jungle where they hope to earn their fortune for a new life.

But the colony is an oppressive prison for which there is literally no escape during the months when the river runs dry.

This exotic melodrama tracks the rippling effect -- greed, madness and murder -- that Sarah and Hamish unleash on themselves and this remote community of lost souls.




Rating:
Summary: Good acting but the story is too somber and gloomy.
Review: This 2002 film is set in an unnamed dark outpost in Borneo in 1924. The small group of Brits there run an ivory trading business. Into this outpost comes a young man and his fiancé, played by Janet McTeer. The fact that they are not married and she is quite a bit older than him is not lost on the small group which consists of a matriarchal woman who runs the business, her demented adult son and his aging and slightly crazy former nanny played by Olympia Dukakis. There's also a priest who seems to have spent too many years there and a criminal-type nephew who would like to run the business. The setting is dark and mysterious and the story is somber. There's cruelty, murder, insanity and suicide without one bit of lightness in the constant gloom. Yes, the acting is excellent and that is what made me keep watching, but it's such a dismal view of the world that there is no way I can recommend this film to anyone. See it at your own risk.