Between school, work, personal projects and trying to keep track of friends and family I rarely have the time to really enjoy TV, much less keep up with series shows. However, having recently started browsing the movies section as well, I came across this peculiar gem.
Note these two posters for the same movie - in one the image overlaying the focal point (The character Ink holding the hand of the girl child Emma) is of a man and woman, apparently in bed, happy. In the other, ominous figures with glowing eyes stare down as though threatening attack.
In many ways these two posters, and the feelings they arouse, sum up the movie very well.
Ink (2009) is, to be completely blunt is just fantastic. According to imbd,
"No big studio picked up the film for theatrical and home distribution. Double Edge Films pitched the movie directly to independent cinemas and to the DVD, Blu-ray and online distribution by themselves. After the release it became the most downloaded movies in file sharing torrent sites more accurately 400,000 times in a single week and exposed the film to a large audience, leading to higher DVD and Blu-ray sales in return. The independent filmmakers wrote in their newsletter that they had "embraced the piracy" and are "happy Ink is getting unprecedented exposure." imbd page on the movie
This relatively low budget movie (as compared to James Cameron's Avatar at $237 million) with funding in the low/mid thousands gets every bang for its buck utilizing a talented cast, excellent writing and a sweet, often sad and yet energetic soundtrack which subtly steers the overall mood with effective strains and pacing. Attention to detail in both minor and major moments give an otherworldly sense to a familiar setting (work, home) in a very Neil Gaiman fashion.
The visual effects budget clearly went for the most part into the handful of delightfully choreographed fight scenes but despite leaving less for effects in other places (the latex application for Ink's face in particular is glaringly unrealistic) the overall combination lends itself beautifully to the world that the creators of this movie tried to spin into new life.
That is, our world - at least that of our dreams.
(The storytellers and Pathfinder (in the hoodie) searching for Emma)
The movie Ink centers on a small group of beings connected in strange, deep ways, all centering on the child Emma. Fighting for her soul are the Storytellers - beings that cannot be seen by those awake, and give us good dreams - as well as Incubi, disturbing creatures that plunge our sleeping minds into nightmares.
Ink, the title character, has taken Emma's soul from her body, and is attempting to bring it to the Incubi in order to gain entrance into their assembly and become an Incubus himself. In the process, however, Lieve (Jessica Duffy) - one of the more warrior-like and respected of the Storytellers - becomes involved, and while following to assure Emma's safety, continues to remind Ink he still has a choice. In the meanwhile, another group of Storytellers and a pathfinder (beings who sense the flow of cause and effect as song) try to locate them, while in the waking world Emma's distant father copes with his daughter falling into coma as well as major business decisions that may give him everything he's ever wanted in a career, unaware that he too is of key interest to the Incubi.
Full of action, whimsy, good acting and a wonderful plot twist, this is 102 minutes of quality fantasy you won't want to miss. A movie with a hear felt moral and a skillful execution, Ink is easily one of the best, most underrated and unheralded movies of 2009.
Official Trailer
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