Movie Haiku - The Skeleton Key

www.theskeletonkeymovie.com


Dir: Iain Softley


Cast: Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, John Hurt, Peter Sarsgaard


Where are the mirrors

and why can't the old man speak?

some kind of hoodoo


The Skeleton Key has kinda crept out without too much fuss or hype surrounding it. The film centres on Caroline (Hudson) a young lady who moves into an old house in New Orleans to help look after the elderly couple who live there. Violet (Rowlands) is a stern, no-nonsense woman with a rather strange aversion to mirrors, whilst her brother Ben (Hurt) is mute and bed-ridden following a sudden stroke. Caroline is given a skeleton key - hence the title - to allow her access to the whole house, and of course it's not long before she's up in the attic discovering that there's a dark history to the place, involving all kinds of hoodoo and the lynching of the original servants, Papa Justify and Mama Cynthia. Caroline becomes very suspicious of the circumstances surrounding Ben's stroke, and with the help of lawyer Luke (Sarsgaard) she gets out the brick dust, starts investigating the local hoodoo rituals, and attempts to rescue Ben from his seemingly sinister sister. The Skeleton Key is full of the typical Deep South thriller cliches, but looks authentic and has a lush atmosphere throughout. The story is hardly breaking new territory, but director Softley builds the events up nicely towards the rather inevitable plot twist - although it has to be said that it's well handled and has a rather grim satisfaction about it. It's great to see Kate Hudson back on our screens after her self-enforced break and she brings great intelligence and realism to her part, the kind that is rarely seen in this type of story, and really helps to raise the film above the average. She also runs around in her short pants a lot too, which is no bad thing. The supporting cast are all good value: Rowlands plays the strong matriarch figure perfectly, her face hiding the emotion - and perhaps madness - beneath the surface; Sarsgaard has always been an underrated talent; and Hurt has the hardest job here, having to act purely through his facial expression - although learning his lines must have been a piece of piss! There's rather too few scares in the film for my liking, but otherwise it's a likeable little film with some good performances, and at least it's an alternative to the conveyor belt of Asian remakes and gritty seventies shockers that we've been getting this year.

soulmining rating: ***