Cinephile No. 664 "Chameleon"
"Utter Confusion"
A Review of "Chameleon" by Nathan H. Box
Director: Jorge Riquelme Serrano, Writer: Jorge Riquelme Serrano, Starring: Alejandro Goic, Gaston Salgado, Paulina Urrutia
Rating: 1 Star, SKIP!
For my 20th film of the 43rd Annual Seattle International Film Festival, I wanted to be confused beyond belief. "Chameleon" focuses on an unexpected house guest who makes himself comfortable by interrupting a couple's last day together in their home. On the surface, this doesn't seem like an overly confusing plot line. Trust me, though. This film only gets weirder and weirder.
Our house guest knows the lesbian couple whose home he returns to. In fact, he was there the night before at a going away party. He uses this fact to regain entrance into the home. Right off the bat, we notice the relationship between the couple is odd. One woman is very controlling and demanding, while the other is very passive. The way in which the dominant woman speaks to her partner made me very uncomfortable. For much of the first third of the movie, the audience is treated to dialogue between the three characters. I found this boring and did little to properly develop the characters.
Then there is a turn to something interesting. Our house guests drugs one woman making her virtually unconscious. With the other woman, he has a violent encounter. What happens next is quite disturbing. For me, it is one of those things I never like seeing on a movie screen and maybe that's the point but all I could do was question his motivation for taking advantage of these women.
After the rape ends, my immediate thought was, "Am I supposed to hate this?" Because I do, but do the director and screenwriter want me to pull from this film? Is our house guest a serial rapist? Serial killer? What the hell is going on? For me, these are questions that are never fully answered. Which is why I give this film 1 star and recommend you skip it.
Be good to each other,
-Nathan
