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The Divide2011 | 110 min | 2.39:1
“The Divide” is not a feature one should watch to maintain a happy mood. It’s a pitch-black post-apocalyptic drama, teaming with murder, rape, and raw hostility, carrying an ambiance of dread that requires a Silkwood shower after viewing. It’s also a halfway compelling study of dehumanization and survivor instinct, supplying some easily telegraphed yet fascinating scenes of physical and mental decay. It’s not a film for everyone. Heck, it’s not a film for anyone, yet underneath the oppressive atmosphere of this insistently nasty movie are a few persuasive scenes of panic set against a terrifying doomsday scenario. 
Nuclear bombs have hit New York City, forcing residents of a high-rise apartment building to scramble for cover. A few slip into an underground shelter constructed by superintendant Mickey (Michael Biehn), hoping to survive the attack and quickly return to safety. Left to rot, Josh (Milo Ventimiglia), Bobby (Michael Eklund), Eva (Lauren German), Adrien (Ashton Holmes), Marilyn (Rosanna Arquette), Delvin (Courtney B. Vance), and Sam (Ivan Gonzalez) struggle to maintain their sanity as limited food and water sources are exhausted and outside help reveals itself to be a fantasy. As the days pass by, the community of familiars and strangers grow to turn on one another, with Josh and Bobby soon assuming control of the bunker, leaving Eva terrified about her safety and the needs of others as hope gradually runs out. Written by Karl Mueller and Eron Sheean and directed by Xavier Gans (“Hitman”), “The Divide” takes the end of the world with the upmost seriousness. This is no PBS special with pronounced moral lessons and refined performances, but a savage creation that enthusiastically imagines the degeneration of those stupid enough to avoid a quick, assured death. The material almost passes for a theatrical production, unleashing a group of showy actors in a claustrophobic setting, each tasked with shaping their character’s inner life and external fear while frequently engaging in yelling matches and assorted levels of paranoia. Gans provides fluid camera movement and steady editing, opening the picture up cinematically, but the bare experience of “The Divide” is watching “normal” people slowly abandon self-control, their compassion dissolving into animalistic behavior. 
For the first hour, “The Divide” sustains a toxic atmosphere that’s worth soaking up, with the script attempting to insert surprise by creating an element of observation outside of the shelter, complicating the situation further. Characters also die or are removed from the equation in unpredictable ways, sparking a level of suspense that’s welcome in such a grim motion picture. “The Divide” isn’t exciting, but it holds attention through voyeurism, watching the characters struggle with relationships and losses while killing time eating canned food and baiting one another with taunts and cutting observations. Gans holds to a slow-burn method of reveals and loyalties, unraveling the personalities cautiously, though he’s much too permissive with the cast, giving the talent free rein to personify madness, often sold through unbearable thespian quirks and improvisational scenes that feel like they run on for centuries. “The Divide” takes a swan dive into insanity in the second half, cranking the brutality to unnerving levels as the community is boiled down to the basics of sex and violence, finding poor Marilyn offering herself up to be destroyed by Josh and Bobby’s unbridled urges. The film is difficult to watch from start to finish, yet the final two acts of the movie fixate on nastiness, provoking the viewer with close-ups of torture and prolonged acts of rape. The sickness is a comment on humankind’s natural inclination toward depravity as the darkest hour approaches, yet the aggression and its graphic display say a lot more about Gans’s screen appetites and his own psychological abyss. Points are made quickly in this picture and then promptly steamrolled by excess to maintain superfluous shock value. 
It’s disappointing to watch “The Divide” move from a chilling warning shot to a dreary, outrageously overlong (120 minutes) exercise in overacting and delayed response. Gans treats the climax of the feature like a dopey slasher movie, with characters suddenly lobotomized when in possession of a definitive resolution to their troubles. The fact that the picture commences so confidently only reinforces the abysmal resolution; “The Divide” starts with a whimper and ends with a bang, only to uncover it had very little to share about the human experience the entire time. Starring: Lauren German, Michael Biehn, Milo Ventimiglia Director: Xavier Gens » See full cast & crew |
 
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