Lost at sea 30 years earlier. The fishing boat named the “Rose of Nevada” has returned to its small coastal fishing village that has been forgotten by time. Reappearing overnight, the ship is missing its crew who fell victims to the sea and the aftermath. With themes of memory and nostalgia, the film failed to fully capture me in its waves, leaving me watching from the shore as the story attempted to go deeper into the sea than it sucessfully could.
The Cornish fishing village where Nick and Liam live is in a state of economic decline. 30 years earlier, the fishing boat the “Rose of Nevada” contributed to the thriving fishing town, but it was lost at sea. Now 3 decades later, with the town and its people struggling, the Rose has mysteriously turned up secured to the docks. Nick, in desperate need for money for his family, and Liam, homeless and alone, both jump at the opportunity to be part of the crew to help the ship return to the water, in hopes of bringing abundant catches of fish back to their village. But after their first successful fishing trip, the two men return to their town to learn that they have not just gone back, but they are also back in time. The fishing village they knew is now a bustling hub, as Nick and Liam are transported back to 30 years earlier, before the Rose was lost at sea. Mistaken for the original crew of the boat, Nick is desperate to return home to his family.
From the first shots of the story, you can tell this is one seeped with nostalgia. Shot on 16 mm film, the dreamlike visuals work to set the scene of this town lost in time. Reeling from past loses and unable to move on, while also refusing to acknowledge these loses or find new ways to help the village thrive, all of these challenges are communicated through the beautiful visual language of this 16 mm film.
Along with the aesthetic look of the film is the actual story, which unfortunately really failed to capture me in the first third of the film, leaving me quite uninvested throughout the remainder. It seems to very often favour the visual language over the actual narrative language of the film, opting for shots of surroundings and cutting away from characters when I was curious to see them most. This really held me back from connecting with the characters and story, instead leaving me much more interested in the look of the film than the actual plot itself.
The time travel is a unique device to explore an industry like fishing and towns that rely on it, stuck in the past and unable to keep up with changing times. But in this story, it seemed like the good idea stopped here. I could never anticipate where the story might be wanting to go, so it made it even more difficult to connect with the story. This also made the pay off at the end much less worth it, as I was never fully invested in the stories of the characters.
Along with this is the length of time it took for the film to finally take off narratively. The story takes much longer than it needs in the beginning setting the scene and the overall vibe, and in the end never captured me in its first act. This once again contributed to myself not being invested in the stories or characters, making the rest of the film quite a drag to get through.
There is a cool commentary buried in the film on the importance of not only remembering the past but also acknowledging past losses so those left can move into the future. Further, the film touches on industries relying on old technologies, leaving towns that rely on them stuck in the past as modernization creeps up on them, unable to keep up with the constantly changing demands of the larger cities it supports. But all of this is too forgettable under the films attempt at being more visually than naratively intriguing, leading to a forgettable film.
George MacKay and Callum Turner are fine in the film, but are held back by characters who are not fully realized and a story that stalls almost as soon as it starts. They never are able to contribute much to this story with the little room their characers are given for growth.
Overall, Rose of Nevada is a truly forgettable film. Though it scratches the surface of some interesting topics, it fails to fully dive in to any of them, favouring a visual language over any narrative that has anything to say.
Rose of Nevada will be released in Canadian cinemas on July 10. Image courtesy of Vortex Media.
