When Shadows Speak

CAST: Daniel Radcliffe,Ciaran Hinds,Janet McTeer

Rating: **1/2

For his first film after Harry Potter,Daniel Radcliffe couldn’t have chosen a more different venture. In The Woman in Black,he is a widower with a four-year-old son who encounters the supernatural in an English countryside that has nothing to do with magic.

A solicitor,he is called to find a buyer for an apparently haunted estate in a village. However,when Arthur (Radcliffe) lands there,he encounters an entire population in the grip of an unsaid fear. People stare at him as he passes by,pulling children inside. The local solicitor,as well as the owner of the inn that he has booked a room in,tries to convince Arthur to return without visiting the house.

It’s easy to understand why. The house in question is located on grounds overgrown with weeds,on a cliff,on an island,down a long road that gets covered by sea water at high tide,with no other houses in the near vicinity,forget shouting distance. However,soon enough,Arthur is not only spending hours there alone but even a night,armed with just candles and matches,and a dog lent by the richest man in the county,an amiable Daily (Hinds).

Director Watkins,filming a novel that also spawned a 1989 movie by the same name,keeps the horror basic,natural and un-bloody. It’s the atmosphere that seeps into the bones,the lengthening shadows and letters on yellow,crinkled pages that indicate other kinds of unspoken fears,plus a dark night on a muddy marsh that won’t be easily forgotten. As Arthur figures out the history of the house,it acquires a character and a personality well-deserved for being the centre of the piece.

Radcliffe,in his first role as a mature adult,conveys the mix of stricken grief and haunted uncertainty that the film is aiming for. These are difficult times for him too,as his wife’s death in the midst of painful labour is still a recent memory,and he confesses he still feels her presence.

Daily,whose son died young — as do many other children in the village in another of the film’s mysteries — tells him: “Don’t go chasing shadows.” His own,mourning wife (McTeer) hangs just on the brink of madness,treating two dogs as her own children,putting them to bed in a cradle and singing to them.

However,The Woman in Black gets greedy,not just in its relentless focus on the children as victims,but also in the number of times Arthur goes down a corridor holding out an axe for protection,returns and goes back again. Plus,a film that understands the power of tricks played by the mind also deserves a better denouement.

shalini.langer@expressindia.com