REVIEW - THOU GILD'ST THE EVEN

It is always a disappointment when a talented director puts their skills to inferior uses; it is an even greater disappointment when said director has not experienced the level of success that those skills deserve. The first few scenes of Onur Unlu's Thou Gild'st the Even show immense promise. Unlu's sense of space is acute and his use of blocking exemplary. The blend of droll humour and sweet drama is deftly done, and lends the film an affable character. Ali Atay gives a strong but not showy performance as Cemal, a young barber with a peculiar outlook on a peculiar world. The film is given a bit of pep by quirks, both stylistic and narrative, from engrossing long shots and soliloquies to hints of magic and mystery, be they in Unlu's focus on spinning objects or the bizarre fantasy elements he spreads throughout the film. He could have taken his story in a more realistic, and pessimistic, direction and foregone these elements, but they give the film a charming and unique quality, and are far less irritating than they ought to be (though your patience may be tested when Unlu briefly turns the image upside down for no discernible reason). All of the above is most welcome, but it's far from enough to sustain a full-length feature, and what Unlu provides as the film's core concern is of much less value. It is here that he ends up putting his skills to purposes cliched and caustic: it's one, thoroughly sexist, thing to present his less-than-attractive lead as a bona fide babe magnet, but it's another entirely different, and even more sexist, thing to suggest that a few lines of Shakespeare might suffice as retribution when a man beats his girlfriend due to a completely unfounded suspicion. Indeed, Thou Gild'st the Even features two beatings of women, neither of them justifiable under any context. No amount of droll humour can suffice as retribution from that - in fact, it only makes it worse. A decent film undone by a questionable sense of morality regarding gender - one of several that I have seen of late. That's the biggest disappointment of all.