Based on one of Ernest Hemingway’s lesser-known works, Across the River and Into the Trees is a quietly melancholic drama set in Venice, Italy, at the close of World War II. It tells the story of American Colonel Richard Cantwell (Liev Schreiber) who returns to Venice, having served there in the Italian campaign, after being diagnosed with a debilitating illness. There he encounters an enigmatic young woman by the name of Renata Contarini (Matilda De Angelis), who seeks an escape of her own in the face of her upcoming marriage.
The two spend several Venetian nights together, in which Renata attempts to coax Cantwell from his shell. But the guarded character has come to the city for reasons not initially clear to the viewer – under the guise of “duck-hunting” – and the film poses the question of whether he can escape the ghosts of his past in pursuit of a dream for the future, something Renata believes in whole-heartedly and describes as “driving… for miles and miles and miles in one direction… not round in circles on water.”
While Schrieber’s stoic performance is admirable, this is undeniably De Angelis’s film. The Italian actress is radiant as Renata and provides the film with a captivating brightness that prevents it from collapsing under its own thematic weight. While Cantwell is a character with “death sewn into the lining of [his] clothes,” Renata is a spark of life and a symbol of hope, and it is her romanticism that makes the film worth watching.
The third main character is Venice itself – the direction of Paula Ortiz and cinematography of Javier Aguirresarobe (whose credits include New Moon and Eclipse from the Twilight saga, to provide some aesthetic context) capture the city, as well as the titular river and trees, in a way that feels like a painting imbued with the light and dark contrast of the film’s somber tone. It is a poignant portrait of the historic location and an ode to its survival, as well as a preservation of an antiquated past.
The style of the film is certainly old-fashioned and may skew towards a more mature audience, but it doesn’t feel amiss in the context of the genre. While it’s not doing anything particularly new, Peter Flannery’s script is perhaps an improvement on the source material and finds strength in gentle moments, particularly those concerning questions of life and death. It’s in this juxtaposition that the characters of Cantwell and Renata are so effectively poised, the film less interested in a fast, plot-driven pace, but rather in what arises in the space between these antithetical characters. It’s both a war drama and a romance but also not quite either of those things, which may run the risk of disappointing fans of either genre. Ultimately, it channels both these elements into a meditation on the past, mortality, and whether it’s really so easy to dream when your own history has you driving around in circles on water with no road in sight.
Photo courtesy of Level 33 Entertainment
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