The Wachowski Brother’s Matrix trilogy has many cinematic sins to atone for. The Swedish movie Storm is one of those sins.
Donny (Eric Ericson) is a writer who suddenly finds himself caught up in events initially beyond his understanding when a mysterious leather-clad, red-haired woman (Eva Rose) entrusts him with a small metallic box with the cryptic instruction “Go back to the source.” Chasing her is a dark suited man (Jonas Karlsson), anxious to retrieve the box, or at the very least keep Donny from opening it.
Storm is a movie that wants to unfold its various mysteries over multiple layers of its character’s perception of realities, with vague clues to its secrets hidden within almost surrealistic dreamscapes. Unfortunately, all this amounts to is an awful lot of build up and very little pay off. Instead, we get some foot chases and an occasional shoot-out all punctuated by a car chase or two. While the action is well staged and exciting, it ultimately doesn’t serve to move the plot along, but instead delays any sort of story progression.
The movie does very little to make us want to care about Donny as a hero. In fact, as more is revealed of his past, the less sympathetic he becomes. Also, the nature of his repressed memory doesn’t hold up to logical examination, as it is something that would certainly be brought up in conversation by family on at least rare occasions.
By the film’s end, it is revealed that the two factions warring over the restoration of Donny’s memory are supernatural in nature, perhaps representing Heaven and Hell themselves. But at no point is it explained or even hinted as to why Donny is so important that they would do battle over him, leaving us the audience wondering why we watched this movie to begin with.
