I really enjoy a claustrophobic film. Cube, Saw, Nine Dead, Moon, The Purge, Dredd. All films which are set in a single location. It forces the writer to do something with the story instead of shifting the focus from place to place and I love it.
So when I found Meander (2021) I was especially happy – especially because it had a few striking resemblances to Cube.
What I got was an interesting story – this I cannot deny – but ultimately it was unfortunately a story which didn’t really seem to lead anywhere.
After getting a car ride from an unknown man, Lisa wakes up in a tube. On her arm is strapped a bracelet with a countdown. She quickly understands that every 8 minutes, fire burns an occupied section. She has no choice but to crawl into safe sections to survive. To know why she’s there and how to get out, Lisa will have to face the memories of her dead daughter…
What then happens I find difficult to describe. I’m sensing that the writer keeps it vague and keeps a lot of answers to himself because, I’m guessing, the film focuses on the journey as opposed to the destination?
Fortunately, the film doesn’t take long to actually get into it – Lisa throws out her book of “how not to get murdered” by accepting a ride from a complete stranger, and as luck would have it, happens to get into the vehicle just as the radio announcer is giving a detailed description of a serial killer, who just happens to be the driver. A struggle ensues and we get a cut to black. Lisa then wakes up in a tube with a fancy new watch, which displays a countdown, which signifies when the pipe is purged in fire. She’s then to traverse the tube and it’s hazards to escape, only to find that escape was never an option. Along the way she encounters the transfigured driver / serial killer from earlier and gives him his just desserts. Said hazards include things like barbed wire and acid – your typical Saw-esque traps, and finally a visit from her long-dead daughter. During all this an… alien? Robot? Hybrid of the two? Keeps appearing to either heal or deliver a coup-de-grace to Lisa, who keeps hovering between her two options.
We then reach the film’s climax – where reaching is staggering and climax is a disappointing conclusion.
As I mentioned earlier – escape was never an option, so after watching Lisa go through an hour’s worth of torture porn she hits what she thinks is the sky – and I mean literally hits, because it’s just a screen. The next thing we know, Lisa has been teleported to another planet (really) with her long-dead daughter where you get a line so cheesy and expected it makes you want to punch yourself or the screen right in the face.
“Did I die?” Lisa asks her daughter.
“Your body died many times,” her daughter replies.
“What do I have to do now?” Lisa asks,
“Live” replies her daughter.
Bleeeuuurgh.
At the end of all this, we still don’t know for sure whether Lisa was alive or dead – the murderer at the beginning did stab her so this could’ve all been purgatory, or some sort of coping mechanism. The alien/robot thing, we’ve no idea what it was, nor do we know what the creatures in the pipe was, or even what the pipe was. Was it all part of some scheme an alien with a superiority complex cooked up? Did her daughter get brought back to life? The attempt at ambiguity is simply frustrating.
Meander is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.
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