Keyhole (2012), Guy Maddin

In Keyhole, Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin explores the fractured memory of Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric), a gangster returning home after being away for years. While the premise broadly resembles Homer’s Odyssey, the style is noir, and the absurd plot is on par with those by filmmaker David Lynch. It’s a convoluted tale of a man who must face past baggage before reuniting with his wife.

Ulysses arrives home carrying a teenaged girl Denny who just drowned. He’s accompanied by Manners, his own son whom he doesn’t recognize and seems to have taken as hostage. Upon meeting his gang in the living room, Ulysses orders them to line up along the wall; those who are alive must face him, and those who are dead must face the wall. Two men who face the wall are sent out of the house.

Three more deaths occur before Ulysses journeys through the house. One gang member dies from direct contact with a speechless woman who scrubs the floor and turns out to be a ghost. Another, Big Ed, is executed by a pedal-powered electric chair. Then Heatly, Ulysses’ beloved adopted son who apparently killed one of Ulysses’ biological sons, dies from a wound. All three bodies are dumped into the bog outside the house.

Finally, Ulysses begins his quest through the ghost-ridden house to his wife Hyacinth (Isabella Rosellini) in her upstairs bedroom. Her father, naked and chained to her bed, partly narrates the film, encouraging Ulysses, “Remember, remember.” Room by room, Ulysses peers into keyholes and recalls his experiences in the house. Ulysses admits to himself, “So many locked doors, and they all have to be opened.”

Different rooms harbor memories of humor, disturbance, and sentiment that enable Ulysses to reconnect with his family. A peculiar trait about each of his sons is revealed. Bruce, the eldest, was always shaking Yahtzee dice, Ned was always drinking a glass of milk, and Manners was an inventor, always looking for a practical use in his gadgets.

Throughout his journey, there is plenty of plot confusion and uncertainty about who is alive and who is dead. At one point, Hyacinth files away at her father’s chain to free him, and he, a ghost, disappears.

The picture is consistently stark with black and white contrast as bright lights shine on characters whose shadows play visually striking roles. The soundtrack meshes with harsh images when horns warn of horror, a piano hounds in dissonance, or the drone of strings echoes a moment of absurdity. Maddin hails composer Jason Staczek for creating “a score that seems to take turns with the images to motivate and even create each other.”

Keyhole, a surreal journey into Ulysses’ turmoil, is a challenge to follow but a gem in the realm of unsettling and bizarre film. In an interview with Sam Adams from the A.V. Club, Maddin summarizes his intentions for the movie: “I set out over-ambitiously to make a movie that was about, well, the ghosts we all converse with constantly and who in our absence even converse amongst themselves. And then I wanted—and this is where I fell short, I think—but I wanted to really make a movie about our living space and the way we all feel about certain rooms... I don’t think I achieved that with this movie, but I think it’s always interesting to set really lofty goals for yourself and then fail better, as Beckett said.”