Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: WHEN YOU OPEN THE DOOR [Fantasia Film Festival - Montreal, Quebec - Virtual]

The concept of quiet and mousy turned into a beast has been done in the past. “When You Open The Door” [Underground] takes a slower pace in referring to the Japanese folklore of the wolf which has not existed in Japan for ages. Miki (Serena Motola) has the countenance of a quiet bird or maybe an owl as she peers through life as an architectural assistant drawing different lines until one afternoon in an abandoned warehouse she is seemingly bitten by a wolf. And yet was it all in her mind? Most of the movie drifts around her responses to stimuli as her more-than-patient husband attempts to find the cause of her malady when her doctor laughs at her accidentally with a little too much glee. Motola has an interesting countenance with her freckles and does an intriguing bird-like impression especially when the parallel of her pet bird brings to mind the incubation of a beast.

More unusual is a gang of elderly women who invite Miki to a moon gathering event (where Miki undeniably knows their song and dance). The cultish element of this is interesting and is partially explained. The progression of the story is understandable although the latter part of the narrative becomes more metaphorical than realistic which likely is the director’s intention. The title refers to the fact that once the path is laid out one cannot refuse it. The reality that Miki is moving towards is uncertain but the narrative alludes to the fact that it is something that has always been in her blood (specifically through her mom but that indication -- beyond the fact that we never see her -- again adds to the vagueness. The final shots are supposed to indicate some kind of cinematic superlative but they fall a little empty because we don’t know what Miki is striving for except change. At one point after she consumes something, we see a smile which an interesting shift in her demure demeanor but the context is not as clear as it should be. “When You Open The Door” is a fair parable but done with a simply adequate voice that doesn’t rise above its material. C

By Tim Wassberg