An Endless Loop

lavatch

Nature abhors a vacuum. That apparently is the reason that the writer Courtney Snow has returned to her prep school, the Douglas Academy, accepting a post as artist in residence. But she doesn't do much teaching in the course of the film. Rather, she has returned home to put closure on ghosts from the past.

The film awkwardly juggles scenes in the present with flashbacks that recall the shocking death by an apparent suicide by student Jane Halloran. The tragic occurrence took place in the room at the end of the all in the McEvoy dormitory. Of course, the site will be the residence of Courtney as she begins her new job. Much of the film seemed overly "talky" without enough action to sustain the viewer's interest.

A young student named Laurel resides in the fateful room where Jane died. Laurel is visited by impressions of Jane, which leads to a dark story of deceit and murder. The oily rector may hold the secrets as to why Jane was "ripped out of this world against her will." Jane's journal holds the documentary evidence related to a little baby that will tie the mysterious strands together. Who will find the "lost" journal?

An essential metaphor raised in the film is the "endless loop" that is bringing back the secrets of the past. Brett, the son of the smooth-talking rector, may hold one of the key pieces in the puzzle about the lineage of little Laurie. In the end, the film conveys the truth that "these walls can talk" in the McEvoy dormitory of the Douglas Academy Boarding School.

score /10

lavatch 16 December 2019

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw5324553/