Agnieszka Smoczynska’s tale of sibling mermaids could possibly be the strangest film in this year’s world cinema competition. Marta Mazurek and Michalina Olszanska star as two sirens, Golden (Olszanska) and Silver (Mazurek), who swap swimming, seduction and hunting men for a life as star turns at a seedy gentleman’s club.
Looked after by the club’s matriarch Krysia (played by Kinga Preis) they use their vocal ability to draw the crowds (their act is called The Lure), but there are a couple of problems with their adopted lives. The first is that Golden can’t stop chomping on the vital organs of the male townsfolk, and the other is that Silver has managed to fall in love with her band’s bass player.
The murders aren’t really that much a problem, besides a few local news reports of “reptilian” DNA found at the scene the sisters aren’t ever really connected. But the romance is an issue: if the love is unrequited and the object of her affections choses to marry someone else she’ll turn into – of all things – sea foam.
Smoczynska uses the sisters’ songs at the club to weave the story, which is part musical, part tragedy and part melodrama. That gives the whole thing an abstract, dream-like edge, which makes it interesting and surprising but very hard to follow. For example, when the sisters become unruly and ask where their wages are the resulting argument ends with them being assaulted and dumped in a river, only for them to reappear a few hours later with little fuss (except for gnawing off somebody’s thumb). Then there’s the demonic character who encourages the sisters to act on their base instincts, but adds nothing more to the story.
As things escalate in the third act, things unravel further in terms of plot, with the main focus – whether Silver will turn into sea foam or not – being obscured by the bizarre conduct of guests at a wedding that seems to come out of nowhere. It’s entertaining to see a man have a serious falling out with a life ring, but what does it add other than zaniness just for the sake of it?
The Lure’s premise alone will turn heads but once the novelty wears off the question will remain: where’s the story?
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