Illicit tales of adulterous lovers have been part and parcel of the movie business since the studio era. "The Square" (2008) takes the conventions of film noir, relocates from the cityscapes of '40s Los Angeles to modern-day Australia, adds a few twists and piles on fatalism with an extra helping of tragic coincidence. While it doesn't exactly bring anything new to the table, "The Square" is a solid exercise in suspense and the brutal logic of fate.
The film, which was released in the United States April 9, is the feature debut of stuntman-turned-director Nash Edgerton, who brings a slick, minimalist style to the story. The plot follows Raymond Yale (David Roberts), a construction supervisor who is involved with a married woman named Carla (Claire van der Boom) who lives across the river from him. Their affair seems destined to cause them problems from the beginning: Carla's dog has a tendency to swim across the river to Ray's house, forcing him to return it and constantly come face to face with Carla's husband. It seems that fate, or coincidence, has it in for them.
Carla's husband, Smithy (Anthony Hayes), has a few shady friends and seems to be involved in some kind of criminal activity himself. One day, Carla walks in on Smithy hiding something in their crawlspace and investigates, finding a bag full of money — not a good sign. She, of course, goes straight to Ray with the proposition of running away together with the money, and here, things begin to go awry.
Ray is hesitant to steal the money, especially since he has his own scam going — getting kickbacks from one of his construction sites. He and Carla reckon that Smithy will be sharp to their scheme if they simply take the money and run, so Ray contacts an arsonist (Joel Edgerton) to burn down Carla's home during a Christmas celebration, causing confusion and erasing evidence so that the lovers can make their escape.
The arsonist accidentally kills someone when the plan, unsurprisingly, goes wrong, and Ray and Carla begin a downward spiral trying to correct their mistakes. The film drags somewhat in its midsection when there are a series of convoluted plot twists that build on one another to back the lovers into a corner.
A few nice touches, however, are scenes such as the one in which Ray receives a blackmail note proclaiming, "I know what you're doing." He goes through pay stubs at work and Christmas cards at home searching for a match to the handwriting and even devolves into smelling the note for women's perfume. Moments when the characters resort to their most base instincts, trying their best to find a way out of their situation, are the ones in which "The Square" is most compelling.
The film continues down its vertiginous spiral, with each plot twist forcing its protagonists to make poor decisions and heightening the sense that fate has doomed them to tragedy. At times, the level of coincidence seems so high that it is hard to tell if the film is making a comment on the unreality of the genre or merely trying to create an extremely complicated example of it.
Edgerton's direction is both a boon and a hindrance; he frequently depicts events by showing seemingly disparate scenes and then circling back to connect them after the fact, perhaps mimicking the spiral-like structure of the story. Unfortunately, his technique is not always helpful or interesting. When things become too convoluted, it becomes hard to follow each step the characters are taking.
"The Square" takes film noir and follows its conventions to the furthest point imaginable, resulting in a sometimes compelling, sometimes confusing execution of the genre. The acting is solid, and the aesthetic is appealing, resulting in an enjoyable, if somewhat rote, experience.
