The Autopsy of Jane Doe
(2016)
(SPOILERS) André Øvredal’s previous film Troll Hunter was an unlikely delight, succeeding in taking the generally moribund found-footage device and coming up with something both wickedly funny and disquieting. This follow up is an altogether more routine affair, expertly stitched together but relying on its choice of lead actors for what juice it has.
Which is fortunate, as there’s a strong rapport between
Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch, playing father and son coroners taking delivery of
a very unusual corpse and becoming increasingly unsettled as it confounds their
every expectation. Cox’s veteran Tommy is a widower of several years’ standing,
Hirsch’s Austin having joined him to provide company through a difficult time.
The son is inquisitive by nature, wanting to get to the heart of what befell
those wheeled their way, whereas dad is entirely clear about where his job
ends; “Leave the why to the cops and
shrinks. We’re just here to find the cause of death. No more. No less”.
The Jane Doe (Olwen Catherine Kelly) who arrives changes all
that, with some finality. There’s something of an X-Files feel to the set-up, complete with a foreshadowing prologue
at a crime scene (“Doesn’t look like
someone broke in to me, it looks like they were trying to break out”), albeit
with a much more downbeat dénouement, and the “trapped in an environment where
they must solve a riddle before it’s too late” scenario is a familiar one. For
a while, at least, we’re not ruling out an extra-terrestrial explanation, until
it’s revealed that the cause is very much local and historical. Indeed, I found
the Salem witchery a bit of a let-down, as it felt like the least imaginative
version of some uncannily established oddities and reveals regarding the
cadaver.
Accordingly, it’s most definitely in the early stages that The Autopsy of Jane Doe plays to its
strengths, as Tommy and Austin dissect the whys and wherefores amid increasing
mystification. Once cadavers are walking, cats are getting their necks broken
and girlfriends (Ophelia Lovibond) are receiving axes to the chest, we’re
mostly operating in the realm of standard-issue, effectively-delivered shock
tactics, and it becomes clear that what you believed was foremost a character
piece seemed that way mainly because of Cox and Hirsch.
Still, it’s interesting to see a very obviously British-made
movie posing as American, complete with numerous fake accents (Michael
McElhatton most obviously) and discreet exteriors. The Autopsy of Jane Doe also makes clumsy use of Chekov’s bell,
going out of its way to explain the continued tagging of corpses (“I’m a bit of a traditionalist”) for the
sake of a twist to the coda.
Agree? Disagree? Mildly or vehemently? Let me know in the comments below.