The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh
Director: Rodrigo Gudiño
Writer: Rodrigo Gudiño
Cast: Aaron Poole, Vanessa Redgrave
Part of: /slash Filmfestival

Plot:
After the death of his estranged mother (Vanessa Redgrave), Leon (Aaron Poole) comes to her house for the first time. As he slowly moves through it, he finds not only some weird proverbs but also discovers that apparently the entire house is a kind of church for the weird angel cult he and his mother had the falling out over. Soon Leon feels like he is not the only one in the house.

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh lives off its visuals. Unfortunately, that is not enough to really make it a compelling movie. It tries very hard but it doesn’t work out.

The house they shot this movie in/the set was amazing. With the first step you take into the house, it is enchanting and you would love to walk through it yourself or have the camera move in slow motion. Even though the camera work is generally amazing: long shots that move calmly as they follow Leon through the house. Makes it almost feel like you’re actually walking through.

Aaron Poole is also really good as Leon and the two things put together – visuals and acting – made for a really compelling start of the film.

Unfortunately that is limited to the start, though. Pretty soon Vanessa Redgrave’s voice over – which is really nice voice acting – got on my nerves. It was too much, it felt suffocating and it was boring.

And generally the film tried to be a whole lot of things at once and keep the story mysterious, but it just ended up being vague and a little pretentious. A little more clarity, or rather decisiveness in its storytelling would have done it some good.

Summarizing: partly very atmospheric, mostly boring.