I've read a few of the reviews here - mostly lukewarm - so wanted to add mine because I think some people will really love this film. The superficial aspects commented on by others are essentially correct. It is 'slow', does not have many events, the dialogue is starchy (but I think authentically stuffy middle-class British for the era), it's very weird and perhaps fundamentally nonsensical. However the low-key surface is counteracted very effectively by a sense of dread and threat to create a queasy tension that lasted from beginning to end. Edward Woodward is extraordinarily good, as he is in most things. His face is a work of art in this. His little furrows of concern or slight smiles of bemusement, and so on, are utterly compelling (for me, anyway!). In the final moments especially, I was completely enthralled and absorbed by what his character is going through. The sedate pace of the film is occasionally punctuated by absurd and uncanny shocks and jarring edits. There's at least one moment where a sort of grimacing laughter is entirely appropriate. It is a nightmare about nightmares, with the illogicality, tonal inconsistency and unresolved questions of nightmares. Perhaps it's just the era, but it reminded me a bit of 'Time Bandits' in the depiction of a UK early 80s mundane household gone wrong. Fans of 'In Fabric' by Peter Strickland might also like this, although they are very different films. And at one point, the Reeves and Mortimer characters 'Le Corbussier et Papin' come to mind. All I can say is I was not expecting to like this, and ended up loving it - but I expect you have to be a fan of woozy, feverish dreams to feel the same way.
Review of The Appointment
