‘Piercing’ Starring Mia Wasikowska Doesn’t Cut Deep [Sundance Review]

“Piercing” does not cut deep. More like light body modification than a stabbing, this film about a sexually and socially dysfunctional guy meeting a woman far more extreme than he is foregoes incisive writing in favor of entertaining but superficial psycho-sexual twists.

Possessed by a vicious desire, Reed (Christopher Abbott) fondles an ice pick. “Piercing” opens with him hovering over his infant son, tool in hand, contemplating murder. Rather than driving the point into his own child he goes on a fake business trip, calls for an S&M-friendly prostitute, and sets in motion a plan to murder her instead. It turns out the woman, Jackie, played by Mia Wasikowska, has her own unusual and unpredictable impulses. No matter; Reed puts great stock in plans laid to victimize her. The earnest and amateurish detail of those plans provide the first glimmers of the film’s comic spirit. That they never consider the possibility of a target who has her own personality or agenda speaks volumes about Reed’s immature world view.

From this scenario, “The Eyes of My Mother” director Nicolas Pesce develops a cat and mouse game of deception to explore the process of coming to terms with your own desires, all punctuated with violent but at least occasionally consensual sadistic activity.

Without spoiling the film’s few reveals, Jackie is… let’s say, more than just “open” to S&M. Things she does to herself, and to Reed, open both of them, but we never actually learn much about Jackie. That’s not the fault of Wasikowska, who nearly carries the film with a performance that bundles a wild array of facial tics and an almost dance-like approach to movement into more of a character than the script offers. Granted, some of the reason we know so little about Jackie is that we’re tied to Reed’s perspective, and he’s not much interested in asking questions. It’s more evidence of his undeveloped ability to relate, but it also keeps the film skimming the surface of its scenario.

“Piercing” is a sibling of Takashi Miike’s “Audition,” and not by accident, as both films are based on novels by Ryu Murakami. The novelist will never be accused of subtlety, but Miike compensated by applying rare, stylistic restraint to his adaptation of “Audition.” While Pesce showed a capacity for great restraint in “The Eyes of My Mother,” here he spins a playful homage to Italian giallo thrillers and the mid-‘90s work of Quentin Tarantino. That works, for a while, but in the end “Piercing” seems more interested in aesthetic playfulness than getting the most out of these characters. Playing towards comedy helps some of the more freaky scenes go down, but that’s not a substitute for substance.

Reed’s scenes are soundtracked with cues lifted from giallo scores – major tracks from Dario Argento’s “Deep Red” and “Tenebre,” are heard, as are many by Italian composer Bruno Nicolai. Jackie’s perspective comes from ‘70s pop songs, but we hear just a few, tied as the film is to Reed.

Something nearly coheres in the identification between Reed and the kooky and occasionally impotent killers of giallo films, but “Piercing” never quite gets there. Revelations about his past seem meant as jolts, but why he wants to kill is less interesting than what might happen when he gets in the same room with someone as extreme as Jackie. (And with all the giallo influence, the fact that Wasikowska enters the film wearing black leather gloves tips off some aspects of her personality.)

Given that this is a film in which people endure some seriously intense, even shocking stuff, Pesce deserves plaudits for crafting scenes that leverage a balance between comedy and horror to keep audiences from turning away. The paper cutout characters, however, can’t even stand up to the test of the film’s 81 minutes. [C+]

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