UPSTREAM COLOR

The day I planned to see UPSTREAM COLOR, I began to wonder if I was in the right headspace to see it due to a lack of sleep. I turned to Twitter and asked my followers whether they thought it was a good idea for me to see it in such condition. I got a great response from Patrick Gamble:

@matinee_ca it would be like being stuck in a perpetual state of awkening from the greatest dream you ever had

— Patrick “Join a Union” Gamble (@PatrickJGamble) April 12, 2013

Credit where credit is due, Patrick was dead right.

UPSTREAM COLOR begins with Kris (Amy Seimetz). One night at a party, she is drugged by a stranger, known as Thief. The drug she is given is some strange toxin-filled worm that puts her into a state of complete susceptibility. She remains in this state for at least one whole day (maybe longer), during which time the perpetrator gets her to liquidate many of her assets and hand them over to him. Before she comes-to, another assailant known as The Sampler harvests the worms from her body for reasons unknown at the time. When she finally awakens, she is in her car on the side of the road, has lost days, a lot of money, and her job.

The film then jumps forward and meets Kris on the train as she goes to a new, far less lucrative or promising job. During the commute, she is approached by Jeff (Shane Carruth). Kris is keenly aware that Jeff has an interest in her, but doesn’t know if he can be trusted. Ever the persistent one, Jeff keeps trying to win her attention and eventually succeeds, mostly when he reveals that he too has been left a very broken person.

While Kris and Jeff’s relationship grows, the story keeps cutting back to The Sampler. When The Sampler isn’t spending hours collecting sounds from the natural world around him, he’s raising and breeding pigs using the organisms he collected from Kris. What’s strange about The Sampler and his livestock is that the pigs demonstrate some curious behaviour. What’s more, the sounds he collects help him to harvest the worms employed by Thief.

Follow all that?

Patrick was right – experiencing UPSTREAM COLOR does feel as though one is waking up from a dream. One watches the film and feels at ease, though likewise blurry and disoriented. As things move from moment-to-moment, the viewer will feel the urge to rub their eyes and wonder what is real. There are moments that seem so vivid and tactile, but leave a lingering question of whether they can be trusted. It’s both abstract and linear at the same time, and leaves the viewer with a wonderful feeling of stillness.

One of the most fascinating things about UPSTREAM COLOR is the way it chooses to tell its story. The plot synopsis I have written above makes the story seem very straightforward; even familiar. Had writer/director Carruth taken that plot and just allowed it to play out moment-to-moment, this film would leave about as much impression on its audience as an episode of CSI. However the film isn’t interested in simply letting its plot unfold. It sets it up like a house of mirrors and forces us to make our way through. Everything we’re seeing is real, but it surrounds and confuses us in a way that leaves us considering every step we take, and grasping at the air in fear.

By thoroughly drowning the audience in the story – even a simple story – a film stops simply telling it to them, and makes it feel like it’s happening all around them.

The film employs some striking visuals to tell its tale, along with some asking that feels desperate in a good way. However, what truly makes UPSTREAM COLOR affecting is its use of sound. In order to allow us to truly understand the characters disorientation and distrust, the film isolates and amplifies all sorts of everyday sounds. Anything from the flipping of papers to the breaking of glass is brought to the forefront of the soundtrack in a way few other films have done.

What this does to us in the audience is throw us as off-kilter as the characters in the story are supposed to be. It gives us the feeling of worry that parents get when they are at home and realize the house seems too quiet. It also gives us that feeling of discomfort that people who suffer insomnia get from the sound of a leaky faucet. These sounds in the film are both isolated and omnipresent and allow us to understand just why Kris feels so shattered, and why Jeff feels so determined.

What all of these abstract elements do is create something that truly feels like it is being experienced. Going back to Patrick’s waking-from-a-dream analogy, it puts us in that moment where visions feel like memories, and for a moment we’re disoriented. It’s all so real that it’s easy to remain mad at those that crossed you in the dream, or take pause with the ones that showed you affection. As we fully wake up, and begin to move, we become more and more sure of where we are and what is true, but in those first seconds, we’re susceptible to anything and everything.

Any film can tell you a story: UPSTREAM COLOR makes you feel it.

Matineescore: ★ ★ ★ 1/2 out of ★ ★ ★ ★
What did you think? Please leave comments with your thoughts and reactions on UPSTREAM COLOR.