Sensation
The score by Neil Myers is working overtime in Martin Grof’s “Sensation.” I first noticed it when our hero, Andrew Cooper (Eugene Simon), is riding his razor scooter down the street after the meeting that sets the rest of the film in motion. Throughout, the music has the feel of Hans Zimmer’s “wall of sound” scores for Christopher Nolan in how it attempts to add tension and energy to the film. I enjoy the score, actually. (I have a weakness for that genre of film music.) The film, as a whole, is another matter.
The screenplay by Grof and Magdalena Drahovska deals with ideas that audiences attuned to “The Matrix,” “X-Men”- and indeed, Christopher Nolan films- will be familiar with. The film begins with a scene on a train where shady men wearing suits discuss a person of interest, who happens to be a few rows back. We then see Andrew in a meeting with one of the men in suits (Alastair G. Cumming), who is a doctor. Andrew is there for a DNA test to see if he can find anyone else with his similar DNA- namely, his father. (His mother, never seen, has been in an institution since his father left.) He leaves with more questions than answers, and even more questions when he meets the doctor again, and suddenly finds himself capable of abilities he didn’t know he had before. He is taken to a facility for people like him to be studied and taught how to excel in his new persona.
Much of Grof’s film feels like a direct-to-video version of “The Matrix” or “X-Men,” with questions about how Andrew fits in to society, and what part of his reality actually exists, being considered while he is shown how connected he is to his fellow students. Actually, another movie that came to mind for me was “Wanted,” and for all of its low-budget film look, I think the way it approaches its premise is more interesting that what we get in that film. Are Andrew and the others being groomed to be stealth assassins? How much of their mind is theirs now? And what do we make of May (Jennifer Martin), who seems to both be leading the training, or maybe she’s there to help him break free? One of the things “Sensation” struggles with, however, is how to get its story to an- admittedly- challenging conclusion, where the film deviates from the formula of the films I mentioned at the beginning of this film, and leaves us with a state of uncertainty like Nolan typically does. I like a lot of the pieces in this story, and the cast is interesting to watch, but it feels like the screenplay started off going in one direction before veering into another one. For fans of the genre, though, it’s worth a watch to see something different.
For fans of film music, I’m curious if you agree with me on the score, and if- like me- you dig the insistence with which it goes about its business.
Your review was informative, thank you! I’ve linked it in our article about the film: https://alkony.enerla.net/english/the-nexus/sf-f-nexus/film-review/sensation-movie-2021-film-review-kadmon