Vladimir de Fontenay’s SUKKWAN ISLAND with Swann Arlaud, young actor Woody Norman from C’mon C’mon, and Alma Pöysti would have been a fine father-son survival drama if it was not for its confusing structure that utilizes misdirection. You spend the last fifteen minutes of the film wondering what the heck is going on and you can only make sense of things when you read the epilogue before the end credits.
Most of the film is satisfying as it is, but the way it is told ultimately ruined the experience for me. It could have been a lot more effective if de Fontenay had found a more honest way of adapting David Vann’s novel to the screen.
