Ever since I saw Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire, I have been a fan of his. His directorial debut last year, Monkey Man, was phenomenal to me. He showed he had the ability to direct and act while doing all his own action sequences. He has been in a handful of films that I’ve loved, including The Green Knight, The Personal History of David Copperfield, and Lion. He is able to bring great energy and ability to his film roles. Unfortunately, I can’t say that about Rabbit Trap, his latest movie role. It just wasn’t up to the caliber of some of his other films.

Darcy and Dafne Davenport (Dev Patel & Rosy McEwan) are a married couple who live in the hills of the Welsh countryside. She is a musician, and he helps her capture sounds for her recordings. While out capturing sounds of the wind on tall grass, the Patel character comes across a boy (Jade Croot) hiding in the grass. Before you know it, they get to talking and become friends. The next thing he knows, the boy shows up at his home, and the McEwan character invites him in. Despite Patel’s character’s better judgment, they all become close and enjoy hanging out together. The Croot character has a mysterious side to him, and he starts to show them some things that are a bit strange.

The writer/director Bryn Chainey creates a strange atmosphere in this film. She uses the beautiful countryside she is filming in as a way to lure the viewers in so she can pull the rug out from us. There are odd things going on in this movie. And they started when the boy came into the picture. The plays he brought the couple have a weird reaction to them. The sounds the main characters try to capture with their recording devices help create the oddness this film is going for. Everything doesn’t necessarily all come together in the end, though.

 The director tries to use a few tricks of filmmaking like dreams and hallucinations to help create an atmosphere of confusion at times throughout the film. There is a nature versus nurture element to this story as well. The relationship the couple has with the child is a good one at first before things start to get out of hand. He shows them he’s willing to learn before he eventually gets annoyed by them. He has an interesting way about him that isn’t easy to put your finger on. A gaelic song he sings seems to give him away to me. I feel this young appearing man may be a fairy of some kind who doesn’t age and takes the shape of whoever he thinks the people he’s dealing with wants him to look like.

The beautiful countryside of Wales is used in its full glory to give the film a certain dampness and foggy nature, which plays into the vibe of what the director is going for. At times, nature takes over in an odd way once a certain thing happens in the third act. Throw in the music and sounds that are in the movie, and you start to see where the story is headed. It feels like a drug endured haze the characters are in, but I feel it more than that because of the Croot character. This story is somewhat of a fairytale with a weird angle to it. I’m all for a good fairy tale, but this one just doesn’t make a lot of sense. 

Rabbit Trap is a modern-day fairytale that doesn’t come together entirely. It’s a bit slow and convoluted at times. The Croot character is a bit overwhelming to watch. Maybe that was the point. Who knows? The mystery around this character didn’t necessarily make the story better. The performances of Patel and McEwan were good, but they were lost in an underwhelming story. The beautiful setting of the Welsh countryside was a perfect place to set this film. Everything just didn’t work for me, though. It was relatively slow paced and a bit confusing to follow along with. I just couldn’t get into this movie that much, but I appreciate the effort that the writer/director put in.

2 stars

Dan Skip Allen