High Rise Review - Impressive Performances Hold This Graphically Violent Film Together

High Rise, from Magnolia Pictures, Film4 and BFI, presents a perfect allegory of the degradation of society when restraint and boundaries are completely or limited removed when a newly minted luxury apartment building faces a failure of services.

Directed by Ben Wheatley, High Rise stars Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elizabeth Moss, James Purefoy, Keeley Hawes, and Joseph Harmon. High Rise is based on the 2015 novel of the same name by the late J.G. Ballard and was adapted for the screen by Amy Jump.

High Rise begins with Dr. Robert Laing, played by Tom Hiddleston, a brain surgeon, moving into the newest “it" address, a group of luxury block buildings that are visual monstrosities, bland with no architectural relevance. The apartments, however, are the status symbols men strive for with all the amenities of high end luxury including gym, pool, sauna, steam and grocery stores.

New to the building, Laing has yet to know personalities and even as he tries to maintain his own lifestyle, the life of the building and all its inhabitants seems to take over.

Soon he has been invited to the upstairs apartment of Charlotte, played by Sienna Miller. Her patio has the extra luxury of looking over Laing’s, who is deemed the “best amenity in the building” and who sunbathes nude.

As High Rise progresses other characters are introduced documentarian Wilder, played by Luke Evans and his very pregnant wife, Helen, played by Elizabeth Moss. Royal, played by Jeremy Irons, and his partner, Jane, played by Sienna Guillory. Charlotte’s son, Toby “The Little Professor” played by Louis Suc. And television personality Cosgrove, played by Peter Ferdinando

Laing, as a physician, surgeon and professor, has concern for the human condition. One of his students is Munrow, played by Augustus Prew, who lives on the upper floors of the building reserved for the uber wealthy and still with the salary of a surgeon, outside the grasp of Laing.

The dissection of the brain separates the men from the boys and without hesitation, and in an almost retaliatory action. Laing strips the cadaver’s head of flesh revealing the brain set in skull to which, Cosgrove faints. This scene sets in motion a series of events that would haunt even the most jaded forever.

By this time, Royal, the cult-demi-god, played by Jeremy Irons, has taken notice of the best amenity in the building and summoned the physician to his home. As the two walk through the garden, a perfectly planted, well-tended, lush garden of flowers, his partner Jane, arrives on her horse. The white horse provided by the one who would rescue her.

Society taxes itself at times, when change like birth pains of labor begin and contractions the painful initiation set upon the people who revolt, which is the beginning of the end in High Rise.

Before the advancement the breakdown which is what happens in High Rise, a riot of renters who paid dearly to live near the upper crest and saw the investment in living as much a career move as a residential one.

Of course, first the electricity fails, then there is a run on provisions, and then one by one the services necessary to maintain a decent civilization are depleted and not replenished. And as the people believe they have reached a life and death pinnacle, chaos ensues, as those who were a short time ago normal are resurrected into post-apocalyptic characters, as society falls into anarchy.  

The time period is clearly the late 1960’s or early 1970’s, although it doesn’t say specifically the prop placements extensive cigarette smoking, swingers, heavy drug use and very free sexual expression, as well as furnishings, automobiles seem to suggest that time period.

All of this plays heavily into the aggressive actions that overwhelm the population of the building when there is a breakdown in services. The riots of that time were the only expression the mass believed would create change.

I was overwhelmed by High Rise. For me the duality of the interpretations was so evident I felt I was watching an allegory of the most historical fall of society ever recorded, the fall of mankind.

The presence of the Garden of Eden, the highest floor of the deeply disturbed society, that opened into a lush, well-manicured, well-kept, abundance and life complete with a white horse and a leader, a quasi-god, dressed in white ended being where the fallen angel the one sent to create new, became enslaved and suffered at the hands of those who couldn’t reach the pinnacle.

Seeing the arch of the characters was extraordinary. Each in the ensemble, seem to have this monologue moment which drew on the pre-destruction, BT, or Before Tragedy, to AT or After Tragedy. The realization in the character of these arch were impressive as they embraced the fullness of what lurks behind the mask and only revealed when cataclysmic circumstances fuse.  

There are exceptional performances throughout High Rise. It vividly depicts the ruin and degradation of society with extreme violence, murder, riots, rape, heavy sexual content, full frontal and suicide.

High Rise opens in select cities May 13, 2016. High Rise is also available on streaming platforms. 

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