Into the Forest

Director: Patricia Rozema
Year Released: 2015
Rating: 1.0

In a (somewhat) futuristic society, sisters Nell (Ellen Page) and Eva (Evan Rachel Wood) live with their father (Callum Keith Rennie) in a cozy home in the woods ... one day, they lose power, Dad (accidentally) kills himself with a chainsaw (in a very amateurishly presented scene) and the two ladies have to defend themselves and gather food (when they aren't fighting with each other over provisions). Page and Wood do what they can to add depth to a pedestrian scenario, but it's a lost cause: the end-of-the-world setup is vague in details (go to Boston, they said!) and the script's devices are too flagrant (naturally there would be a rapist to pop up, pop in and pop out), with plenty of books on hand covering every survivalist necessity (take that, Wikipedia). There's an intriguing pro-life argument to conclude the picture (burn the old down, start anew), but that comes a little too late.