ISABEL (1968)
Article 3404 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-28-2010
Posting Date: 12-9-2010
Directed by Paul Almond
Featuring Genevieve Bujold, Marc Strange, Gerard Parkes
Country: Canada
What it is: Drama with some fantastic touches

A young woman returns home for the funeral of her mother. She then reluctantly finds herself roped into staying and caring for her ailing uncle. She eventually starts to learn more about her family, her history, and herself.

If the plot description doesn’t sound genre to you, that’s because it isn’t; the fantastic content is that the woman occasionally sees strange visions, and there is occasionally a sense of dread to the proceedings. However, those scenes don’t make up a significant part of the movie. It’s an interesting enough drama in some ways, but it’s overlong and a bit of a trial to sit through. Genevieve Bujold gives an interesting and curious performance; the trouble is that the movie becomes overreliant on it at the expense of the story. Most of its big scenes are towards the end, but it’s just too long a ride to get to those scenes. All in all, this is just too much of a mixed bag to recommend.