Canada: Friday, February 28, 2020
IFC Films
http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/disappearance-at-clifton-hill
Following the death of her mother, Abby, a troubled young woman with a checkered past, returns to her hometown of Niagara Falls and the dilapidated motel her family used to run. While there, she finds herself drawn once again into a mystery that has haunted her since childhood: what happened to the young boy she saw being violently abducted in the woods twenty-five years ago? As Abby sets out to find out the truth, she must confront both a shocking, long-buried conspiracy that runs as deep as the falls themselves as well as her own inner demons. Bristling with an air of surreal menace, this mood-drenched thriller is a tantalizing psychological puzzle box that unfolds in the hallucinatory realm between reality and perception.
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Gregory M. - Rated it 3 out of 5
"Disappearance At Clifton Hill" Obsessed with memories of an unsolved crime from her childhood, a young woman’s investigation reveals the seedy underbelly beneath her idyllic 'Niagara Falls' tourist town. Following the death of her mother (Janet Porter), Abby (Tuppence Middleton), a troubled young woman with a checkered past, returns to her hometown of 'Niagara Falls' and the dilapidated motel her family used to run. She becomes obsessed with fragmented memories of a long-ago kidnapping she claims to have witnessed as a child. Abby’s tense relationship with her sister Laure (Hannah Gross) is put to the test as her search for the truth grows out of control. While there, she finds herself drawn once again into a mystery that has haunted her since childhood; what happened to the young boy she saw being violently abducted in the woods twenty-five years ago? As Abby sets out to find out the truth, she must confront both a shocking, long-buried conspiracy that runs as deep as the falls themselves as well as her own inner demons. Bristling with an air of surreal menace, this mood-drenched thriller is a tantalizing psychological puzzle box that unfolds in the hallucinatory realm between reality and perception. After a prolonged absence, Abby returns home to 'Niagara Falls' to deal with the recent death of her mother and settle her affairs, including the crumbling motel that’s been left to her and her younger sister, Laure. The two sisters have a strained relationship, mainly stemming from Abby being a pathological liar who’s lied too many times and burned too many bridges for Laure to ever trust her again. As Abby attempts to maintain a front of responsible normalcy and keep her compulsive lying in-check, she stumbles across a collection of old family photographs that unlocks a haunting memory of a violent kidnapping she witnessed as a child during a family fishing trip on 'The Niagara River'. Nobody believed her then and nobody believes her now, but Abby can’t help but start poking around. As she digs deeper, it slowly becomes clear she’s stumbled upon an actual, real mystery. Through sheer force of will and her uncanny art of manipulation, Abby begins to suck everyone in her orbit into her burgeoning web, including Laure, taking their rocky reconciliation on a roller-coaster ride. Descending further down the rabbit hole, Abby begins to unravel a conspiracy that reaches far and wide, implicating the city’s most powerful and dangerous. But after the lights go out and 'The Ferris Wheel' stops turning, Abby learns that truth is always stranger than fiction. Abby is in every scene and it’s told through her lens. The protagonist is a female and the story isn't about chasing love. There's a connection with a male character but it’s really not about a woman chasing a man. This is more the story of obsession. The mystery really draws in. Abby is a really interesting character because she’s someone who's flawed and essentially a pathological liar. There are never any excuses make for her or explanation or validation for why she behaves the way she does. Despite being a pathological liar, the character of Abby is completely fascinating and she's not a bad person. She's kind of charming. We can understand her and we can sympathize with her. She’s very capable in a lot of ways but she’s lost track of who she’s become. They’re often stuck in the time where they first began to experience or explore that behavior, usually in their late teens or early 20s, when it becomes a compulsive behavior. Abby’s never quite grown up. She’s unable to form lasting relationships with people, she’s always letting people down, not able to trust many people, and not many people are able to trust her. That's important to understand when we look at how she relates to people. In order to support that behavior, she has to keep moving. She’s someone who travels a lot and doesn’t have many personal belongings and who's constantly reinventing herself. She’s a bit like an actor. She can transform herself and become a different person depending on what it's that she needs. And usually with pathological liars, it’s the behavior itself that's the reward. Clues start piling up when she meets Walter (David Cronenberg) who's well versed on missing persons and conspiracies of the area. As she pieces together information she begins to wonder if it really is a grand cover-up or if her childhood trauma is mixing up truth and fiction in her mind. The lying itself is the satisfaction. That's a really interesting idea. Laure is very specific to 'Niagara Falls' in the way that she knows exactly where she's from and how to elevate from there. Laure is 28 but comes across as in her mid 30s. She’s simple but in the nicest way. She just wants to be normal as a reaction to growing up with Abby and being under her influence. She wants stability and comfort and peacefulness and normalcy in her life. Abby and Laure have been estranged siblings until we see them reunited in the script and the differences between them jump off the screen. It’s almost a case of nature vs. nurture where you can’t believe these two sisters came from the same family. But then there are moments throughout the movie where it becomes pretty obvious that they're related. By nature of being the younger sister, Abby is somebody who Laure grew up looking up to and even now is still very easily influenced by, much to her chagrin. She’s a very straightforward, pragmatic person. She’s very rational while Abby is completely irrational. So naturally Laure is the more maternal figure of the two. The dynamic between Abby and Laure is the heart and soul of this movie. Marcus (Noah Reid) is husband to Laure. He has no idea who to believe or what to do but he’s just trying to be helpful. He definitely enjoys being a part of solving this mystery. He has a strong moral compass and he wants to do the right thing but there's also some intrigue. Charlie Lake (Eric Johnson) is the heir to 'The Charles Lake Fortune', which owns the better part of the town. We see Charlie as a guy who runs the town and has his privileges and maybe a bit of a dark past that we start to explore. 'The Lake Family' has always been a bit brutal in how they run this town. Charlie puts on a bright smile and a friendly disposition but deep down there is some of that Lake darkness. He has an interesting relationship with Abby that follows many twists and turns. When Charlie first meets Abby he's ultimately quite sympathetic to her situation and a little charmed by her quirkiness. As she continues to prod and touch a sore spot of Charlie’s own history, however, he wants nothing more to do with her and wants for her to get out of his town. At first Charlie sees Abby as an annoying person who’s fallen victim to rumor and innuendo but as the story continues to push along he realizes that she jeopardizes his empire. Singh (Andy McQueen) is a cop who's new to 'The Niagara Falls' police department. He’s come to this place to start over. When he first comes here he’s lonely and gets lost in the allure of 'Niagara Falls' and all that it has to offer. But it’s a place you can never quite put your finger on and he’s just trying to fit in. Singh finds Abby very charming. There's something about her that keeps pulling him back in, for whatever reason. Given the circumstances that shouldn’t be the case, but there's something about her that he just can’t put his finger on. He first meets her at a bar and likes her but over time he realizes she’s not someone he can trust. However, because of her charm he’s pulled back into her world. It’s fascinating because he’s dealing with this case that has so much to do with her and he knows this is wrong but he somehow thinks its worth going after. The Singh character is an interesting counterpart to Abby’s character. 'Niagara Falls' is a fascinating city, but also one that begged to be explored or captured in an interesting way. Beyond the world-famous sights and tourist attractions of 'Niagara Falls', there’s another side to the city, a side that’s on display in this compelling neo-noir mystery. 'Niagara Falls' is an element that's of the upmost importance to the film. It’s always about specificity. “Disappearance At Clifton Hill" is a film about self-examination but also about external examination of a mystery where we’re meeting different people in weird settings within this town. The visual look of the movie and the city itself are two sides of the same coin and really informed each other. The main location of "Disappearance At Clifton Hill" is 'The Rainbow Motel', the motel is owned by Abby’s parents and one she's holding onto for dear life. The motel representatives Abby’s personal journey but also something that exists in 'Niagara Falls'. We feel alive and part of an environment and world that the film build. You can feel years of all these people passing through. "Disappearance At Clifton Hill" is a psychological thriller about a self-destructive pathological liar who inherits a crumbling motel and becomes entangled in the memory of a kidnapping she claims to have witnessed as a little girl. When we take a look at the script, we recognize the 1970s film, "New Hollywood". It's the same grittiness and looseness of the plot and characters. The key to the case lies somewhere in the heart of "Disappearance At Clifton Hill". 'Niagara Falls’ answer to 'The Vegas Strip', wax museums, fun houses and Ripley’s "Believe It Or Not". It’s a place where reality and fantasy blend together and nothing is as it seems. The film explores memory, truth, and lies; how we tell stories to ourselves and how those stories can sometimes become truth. It's an exploration of what truth is and how it means different things to different people. The script goes deep into childhood memories and whether they’re real or not, and how that can impact us as adults, as well as the consequences of lying as an adult. How the power of rumor and innuendo impacts the truth. Questioning what's the truth is something this film does. written by Gregory Mann
