Amid the Chill of Communist Warsaw, ‘Winter of the Crow’ Fails To Take Flight

Every moviegoer knows the feeling. You’re watching a film that’s intriguing and diverting and then something occurs that strikes you as false or absurd, or both. In the new Polish English feature “Winter of the Crow,” that moment occurs a little over thirty minutes into the film, at a pivotal moment for the lead character. Played by the great Lesley Manville, this protagonist is Dr. Joan Andrews, a British psychiatry professor on a speaking tour of Warsaw in the winter of 1981. Ms. Manville’s precise characterization of a rational academic, though, cannot make sense of a scene in which the character witnesses a murder and proceeds to take Polaroids of the victim and the perpetrator, who is staring straight at her. When one also factors in the fact that Dr. Andrews has no idea where she is and nowhere to run to, that she witnessed an abduction of a woman a bit earlier, and that she’s come to realize that martial law has taken over the country, one begins to truly question whether she would have behaved in such a manner, as well as the filmmakers’ aptitude. Some might defend director Katarzyna Adamik, daughter of respected auteur Agnieszka Holland, and screenwriters Sandra Buchta, Lucinda Coxon, and Ms. Adamik, by saying that they were alluding to the character’s arrogant nature and so-called British smugness in the face of danger. Yet at that moment, the character is anything but steady and self-assured considering she’s lost and just moments before had fallen into the snow while being harassed in a language she couldn’t understand. Unfortunately, this incoherence typifies a film that seeks to meld espionage-like machinations with real events and psychological insight but does so disjointedly and ultimately unsuccessfully.Based on a short story by Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk, the filmmakers naturally expand on what is an anecdote of cognitive distortion and distress: A Briton’s view of Communism and oppression as Poland enters a phase of martial law. One of the filmmakers’ best decisions was to make Dr. Andrews a woman, allowing not only for a potent feminist perspective but a more vulnerable, and thereby sympathetic, character. But their attempts to inject a thriller plot into Ms. Tokarczuk’s story are clumsy at best, despite the setting’s potential for political intrigue and cat-and-mouse design. One of the film’s biggest departures from the original tale sees Dr. Andrews tote the unwieldy Polaroid camera around as if the professor were a tourist in wintry Warsaw who also happens to be unaware of its photographic limitations. As aforementioned, the narrative frequently has her use it at inopportune, even ridiculous times. Beyond its obvious import as a metaphor for the movie camera, the fast-processing device serves as both the film’s fulcrum and crutch, implausibly leading to our heroine as a sort of detective/operative while at the same time lessening the atmospheric impact. The camera and other electronics become too central to the story, reducing the director’s bleak vision of early 1980s Poland and fitful character study to a type of strained techno-thriller and pseudo-spy scenario, complete with impersonal dialogue about “an objective account of reality” and a clunky third-act mention of a totalitarian computer program.The film’s genre elements clash with its intimate, arty drama aspects in ways that betray the director and screenwriter’s inabilities, yet there are components that work at times, such as Ms. Manville’s forceful portrayal. Her Dr. Andrews is a compelling portrait of a “stranger in a strange land,” with the actress’s alternately stressed or shrewd visage effectively conveying the character’s predicament and intelligence. A scene in which the character scuffles with a government henchman displays both the actress’s adroit physicality and the director’s intermittent action filmmaking prowess. Too often, though, the actress is acting in a subjective bubble, with supporting players too muted or vaguely conceptualized to stand out. Only actress Sascha Ley makes much of an impression as a suspicious figure Beata.Ms. Adamik’s strengths lie in her dark evocation of Poland before Solidarity broke through and the occasionally sardonic sociopolitical tone. Tomasz Naumiuk’s shadowy, grainy cinematography works with the ace location scouting and production design in creating nightmarish spaces that eerily match up with Dr. Andrews’s disturbing dreams. From ominous tower blocks and gloomy snowy streets to a carp flopping in a bathtub, the imagery often evokes what the director remembers of her childhood before emigrating to France in 1982. The film certainly paints a grim picture of the country under Communist rule, and these dim visuals align with one of the script’s best lines and main messages: that imagination can kill communism. While Ms. Adamik and her team certainly demonstrate their fair share of creativity, what they sometimes lack is skill, discernment, and the capacity to bring all the various elements together. Those hoping for a satisfying Cold War suspense movie will be disappointed, and those looking forward to an incisive psychological thriller will be equally let down. “Winter of the Crow” descends into a winter of discontent.

Amid the Chill of Communist Warsaw, ‘Winter of the Crow’ Fails To Take Flight

Amid the Chill of Communist Warsaw, ‘Winter of the Crow’ Fails To Take Flight

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