Paula, who works for a historic preservation trust, has dinner alone at a nice restaurant to celebrate her recent success. She orders the spicy fish, and the waiter reports the chef went overboard with the seasoning, which you'd think would be a plot point, but amounts to nothing. Then she goes back to her hotel room, watches a news report about eels which are killing fish in the local waterways, and goes to sleep while pondering if it was a good idea to have the spicy fish for dinner.
The next day as she heads home, she's asked to check out a large ship whose owner just applied for a grant for historic preservation. She drives fifteen miles down an overgrown dirt road to get to the site, finds the ship, and parks with her front tire almost off the edge of the land and directly under a piano hanging from a crane. Seriously?
Needless to say, if you park under a piano, it's bound to fall. The incessant honking horn of the crushed car summons Vigs, the caretaker of the ship, who puts the horn out of it's misery with a crowbar. Since Paula's office has closed for the weekend, she's unable to get help and promptly drops her cell phone into the ocean.
With no other option, she takes Vigs up on his offer to spend the night on board. As time goes on, Paula hears noises, Vigs gets stranger, and the dinner he cooks makes Paula ill. Later Paula asks about taking a shower. Because if there's one thing women crave, it's to be completely unclothed and vulnerable in a shower on an abandoned ship with a crazy caretaker acting all creepy.
The rest of the movie consists of Paula sleeping, waking up, wandering around the ship, interacting with Vigs... and waking up to find it's all a dream. Then she goes back to sleep, only to find herself walking up, wandering around the ship, etc. It's a cycle that repeats endlessly. So basically we're watching little vignettes which make no sense and don't relate to the things that just happened because they never really happened in the first place because it was all a dream, you stupid son of a bitch.
You're left wondering if anything was real. Did Paula get killed by the falling piano? Did she die at the hotel because the fish she ate was tainted by whatever toxins the news stated were being dumped in the ocean? Is she having a fever dream brought on by food poisoning from the overly spicy fish? What the heck is going on? The best thing about this movie was the location, as it was filmed on a real ship which is pretty fantastic. Other than that, this is not recommended.
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| In the far shots, it's a regular newspaper, but close up, a single page from an inkjet printer |
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| I'm having trouble buying that a nice restaurant... |
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| ....would leave open a door so diners could view a repairman. And why is this throw away shot even in the film? |
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| Where should I park? So many choices.... |
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| I'll park in the bushes at the edge of the water right under this piano. Perfect! Nothing could possibly go wrong. |
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| Filmed on a real ship, the location is fantastic |
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