Obviously, the folks who served on the Special Jury at last year’s Cannes Film Festival saw something in “Tropical Malady” that this critic missed, because I found the film they honored with their top prize to be altogether unwatchable. Written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul — a vanguard of Thailand’s avant-garde cinema — “Malady” is divided into two equally wearisome segments: The first hour concerns a budding romance between a Thai soldier (Banlop Lomnoi) and an illiterate country boy (Sakda Kaewbuadee); the second half of the picture is rooted in obscure regional folklore and finds that same soldier searching an eldritch jungle for a mysterious shape-changing beast that has been devouring livestock. At best, Weerasethakul’s directing style puts the “odd” in plodding, and all but the most recherché art house film enthusiasts will likely be put off by his visual and narrative obfuscation. It’s unclear whether Weerasethakul intended “Tropical Malady” as a meditation on the nature of desire, or the nature of nature — but what is readily apparent is the director’s almost complete disregard for coherence and, above all, our patience. This is as trying a cinematic experience as they come. (Not rated. Running time: 118 minutes)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 1, 2005. Read the original PDF.