Attachment

Attachment

The first movie by Gabriel Beer Gilsen, Danish film “Attachment” or its English title “Till We Meet Again,” has many fears. Some of these include a partner’s parent who is too much involved in their relationship, a partner with a potentially terrifying past and the evil spirits that sometimes inhabit humans according to Jewish folklore; but unfortunately what starts off as an interesting emotional journey among these unsettling elements ultimately ends up feeling like nothing more than tiredness towards the end because there isn’t anything else left for us viewers to grasp onto during our watch time.

For an ex-Danish actress named Maja (Josephine Park) and a London-based academic named Leah (Ellie Kendrick), the beginning of their relationship seems pretty sunny. The two meet-cute at a Danish library, where they bump into each other and accidentally swap books. When they track each other down to make the exchange, Maja is taken by Leah, who possesses a brightness and quick disarmament through humor.

So suddenly what was supposed to be an invite for daytime tea turns into wine at Maja’s apartment, which then becomes an elongated sleepover. They fall in love hard with one another; there are jokes along the way that include pretending to not recognize “Romeo & Juliet” while on holiday in Verona together. And for a minute the chemistry between Kendrick and Park transmits that feeling when it seems like you’ve shut out the rest of the world because you’re so busy sustaining this relationship.

And then one night Leah has such a bad seizure that it breaks her leg. Meanwhile, Leah’s Mum is calling again. With Leah tossing her phone to the side we see more than a dozen missed calls.

Maja goes with Leah back to her home in London, which is in the same building as her mother, Chana (Sofie Gråbøl), upstairs from her mother even, because she can tell something isn’t right with this woman’s energy level. As pushy as Chana appears about taking care of Leah, it’s also curious how many pieces of Jewish iconography she has hidden around this house that doesn’t feel haunted but sure does look awfully spooky sometimes when no one’s talking or moving around all too much in it.

It doesn’t help how she always has such a grave wounded look on her face all the time even though she never speaks unless spoken to first not ever once never except for now until right now when you don’t want her to because she’s continuing to speak with a grave wounded look on her face after you’ve already heard enough that you’ll later feel guilty for having been so short with her but then it turns out she deserved your coldness anyway.

And when Leah ventures outside the apartment or whatever you want to call it wherein every conversation feels like another room because no one’s ever talking about the same thing at once and it never feels like you finish a sentence before you’re onto the next topic, and meets a man named Lev (David Dencik) who happens to be Leah’s uncle, Maja is chastised by Chana for letting Lev talk about these things which he should not talk about according to Chana.

Is this a case of Munchausen syndrome? Gislason doesn’t let the viewer off so easily, to his credit. There are some surprises in his script for people who might be interested in its story and its slightly spooky visuals only if they’re followed by more straightforward third acts built around acting that could maybe be described as freaky.

But “Attachment” is just too long for something that ditches its sense of humor halfway through doesn’t pick what it wants to fear most until much later and gets super slow every time it needs to explain itself so forgive me if I’m taking my sweet time getting there because this movie seems endless but also weirdly not long enough like it’s afraid of being caught or something.

“Attachment” very much wants to set its horror within Jewish mythology and Ultra-Orthodox life, but this specific choice always creates an exposition overload which has a more distancing than inclusive effect.

In certain slivers, “Attachment” is stronger as a rumination on relationship worries that could apply to anyone when learning that there were personal connections (Gislason wrote the script for Park based on parts of her life), it makes more sense. The scariest story here is then saved for what happened to Leah’s father, which is revealed early.

Chana wasn’t originally Ultra Orthodox: her ex-husband brought her into the community, had her converted, and disappeared with their daughter’s life all at once, leaving this woman to cling to religion like it was something she could hold onto while she slowly slipped away from herself. A risk of loving someone is that they can change who they are and leave you with heartbreak as your only reminder of who they used to be. “Attachment” gets at that with Gråbøl’s disturbing dramatic work, mirrored poignantly by Maja’s gradual fear as she learns just who or what she’s getting closer with. It is horrible.

I hope that codependency isn’t a trap because sometimes it feels like love might not be enough on its own but also what are we doing if not trying our best anyway?

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