The Novice (2021)
3/10
All Oars and Fury, Signifying Nothing
18 December 2021
This opens with a lot of energy and promise, with an intriguing if unlikeable protagonist obsessively pushing herself to succeed at rowing, of all things. But why?

Well, we never get to learn. There's no twist, no surprises, no big reveal, just a self-harming student behaving like a crazy lady for an hour and a half and then the credits roll. There's no exploration of how she got to such a pathetic state or what is driving her to do any of what she does. All that is rejected in favour of endless aerial shots of slow motion canoes, so I can only conclude the filmmakers didn't know what they were doing or what they wanted to say. By the end this all becomes terribly annoying, pointless, empty and dull. The talented lead actress deserved much better.
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