Disappearance at Clifton Hill (2020)

Disappearance at Clifton Hill quickly gives you a sense of unease as you watch it. This is partially from writer/director Albert Shin's somewhat chaotic narrative style, which jumps around a bit and imbues a sense of dread into each scene, but also due to the fact we see our central character may not be being very honest with us. She lies a lot and there are clues that her memories may not be overly accurate. But the film keeps us with her, not distancing us from her, so we are tied to her and her experience of the events.

This story is of a young woman who remembers witnessing a crime as a child and her pursuit of the truth of that crime. Set in the Vegas-lite area of Niagara falls frequented by tourists, Clifton Hill has a sense of phoniness to it which fits with the mystery element of the film, as in what is real? Shin pulls all this together quite effectively as does Middleton who plays the complicated heroine with grace.

The mystery suffers a bit from the reliance on a number of coincidences that many of these sorts of mysteries rely on. But when the end comes and the twists and turns come to their conclusions it all makes sense in a way I appreciated, especially in light of how much the film tries to pull one over on us. The ending leaves us asking more questions, which is something I appreciate in a mystery.

Cronenberg is at home in his off-kilter film, that has an air of one of his own films. His quirky character is slyly entertaining.

Disappearance at Clifton Hill 
Starring: Tuppence Middleton, Hannah Gross, David Cronenberg, Marie-Josee Croze, Noah Reed, Conner Jessup
Director: Albert Shin
Writers: James Schultz, Albert Shin