‘Rose of Nevada’ Blooms, Conveying Elegiac Nostalgia Through Time Travel

One of the themes of the oddly hypnotic new British film “Rose of Nevada” is the timely subject of generational burden — how a younger generation often has to make amends for the mistakes and regrets of a previous one. This is reflected in its story of two young men working on a long-lost fishing boat recently returned to port and ending up, in a fantastical twist, going back in time. Ignoring the sci-fi comedy potential of this premise, i.e. modern lads romping in the 1990s, director Mark Jenkin has made a serious picture out of a ghost story, a kind of horror narrative in which not only do the ghosts come back to haunt the living but force them to live in the past.The two characters in question are Nick and Liam, respectively played by George MacKay and Callum Turner, two English actors with impressive credits to their names. The latter has been in the news lately, for both his recent nuptials to pop star Dua Lipa and his potential casting as the next James Bond. While Mr. Turner is handsome and effective as the gadabout Liam, it’s mostly through Mr. MacKay’s eyes that we experience the film’s destabilizing narrative and stylistic shifts. And what eyes he has: ghostly peepers set in a pale, gaunt face. They say that “90% of directing is casting,” and Mr. Jenkin couldn’t have chosen a better actor to depict Nick’s haunted journey.The film’s first ten minutes or so play like a trance. Starting with a striking montage of still life-like images and a docked fishing boat called “Rose of Nevada,” the director then introduces a destitute fishing village on the Cornish coast, connecting his characters through quick cuts as if something in the air is bringing them together. This fateful linking and the 16MM richness of the coloring, along with the imagery’s occasional scratch and light leak, produces a hallucinatory effect, which is only heightened by a score recalling the trippy music of British bands Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized, which in turn hints at the time travel to the early ‘90s to come.When we first see Nick, he is picking up groceries at a community food bank. The small home he shares with his wife and daughter has a leaking roof while one of the elderly neighbors next door eyes him like he’s her dead son. Liam, on the other hand, arrives in town running, from whom and where we never find out. Soon, the latter is hired by Mike (Edward Rowe) to work on the Rose of Nevada, which had been lost at sea and whose crew died years earlier. One of the former crew members of the fishing boat had been Nick’s neighbors’ son, while another deceased fisherman had been the rakish lover of Tina (Rosalind Eleaza), a local woman. Astonished by the boat’s return, Mike and Tina seem to believe that sending it out again will revive the town’s fortunes. And once Nick joins the crew, which occurs after a startling, strangely poetic incident, the vessel has the requisite minimum of two deck hands and one skipper, an old sea dog named Murgey (Francis Magee). The trio’s first expedition is successful, though there are ominous moments onboard, like when Nick sees the warning “Get off the boat now” scratched into the bedframe below deck. Yet it’s not until they’re back ashore that the real uneasiness begins, for they’ve returned to the village in 1993, when the overall ambience of the town was one of activity and liveliness instead of stagnation and depression. The slightly dim Liam just rolls with the new time period and disorienting social setting, but Nick is deeply shaken. After a troubling night, he sets out again the next day with his crewmates, figuring that another trip out to sea will bring him back to the present once they return to shore. For those who don’t enjoy stories set on a boat, the film may try their patience, though much takes place on land as well. Furthermore, the always intriguing cinematography and mysterious mood onboard generally make up for the claustrophobic setting and the moments we watch them haul, sort, gut, and ice fish. Mr. Jenkin, who also wrote, edited, and shot the film, displays a curious, almost fetishistic fascination with hands, footwear, and the apparel and gear of fishermen. He also has a knack for assembling images that feels more lyrical and dream-like than a standard narrative of sequential plot points. His skill with music and sound design, yet two more elements he spearheaded, reflects an artist’s sense of perception and an auteur’s control.Ostensibly a horror scenario, the film generally avoids the trappings of the genre, except for one cheap shot of Nick’s witch-like neighbor with distress flares. What the film most resembles is a bleakly surreal character drama, one in which some ideas are scarcely developed but that proliferate nonetheless, like the red rust we see on all seaside metallic objects. One of these barely explored themes is the perils of nostalgia, how preserving the past can conversely negate present reality. Nick may come to realize his responsibility to the community — to its traditions and prosperity— yet he also has a duty to his family living in the here and now. Ultimately, it’s like he’s stuck in a sea shanty, fated to repeat a journey and the rhythm of a bygone era, with the hope of getting back home merely an illusion.

‘Rose of Nevada’ Blooms, Conveying Elegiac Nostalgia Through Time Travel

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