Keyhole

Synopsis
Visionary Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin takes viewers on a surreal journey into the psyche of a desperate gangster backed into a dangerous corner in this surreal, psycho-sexual take on Homer's ODYSSEY. Late one night, a group of gangsters shoot their way into the living room of a large house and wait anxiously for the arrival of their leader, Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric). Ulysses has a knack for getting out of tense situations, and with the cops all around his cohorts need him now more than ever. But when Ulysses arrives with a teenage girl and a bound young man in tow, some of his henchmen start to think it's time for a new boss to take over. An already tense situation turns downright surreal as Ulysses begins venturing through the labyrinthine house in search of his wife Hyacinth (Isabella Rossellini), who remains locked in her room somewhere on an upper floor. Meanwhile, Hyacinth's father offers cryptic commentary on the unfolding events, and the harder Ulysses searches for his wife the more secrets he begins to uncover about his eccentric family.

Reviews
"KEYHOLE situates itself in the heart of that unconscious where all events are simultaneous and death is never more than a distant rumor." (Film Comment)

"The Lynchian sensibility is underscored by the involvement of Isabella Rossellini....The atmospherics of unease are strong in the black-and-white KEYHOLE, Maddin's first fully digital film." (Los Angeles Times)

4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he deadpan humour, frayed logic and monochrome dazzle cast their own richly peculiar spell." (Total Film)

"Shot in shimmering black-and-white, Canadian director Guy Maddin's KEYHOLE is an audacious pastiche about a noir-world gangster on a Homeric odyssey through his own ghost-filled house." (Sight and Sound)