A long and hot wander

Two men called Gerry go hiking in a desert. They get lost. That's the entire plot of this collaborative film directed by Gus Van Sant and written and improvised by the director and his two stars, Matt Damon and Casey Affleck.

Within this minimalist scenario there lies the potential for a score of thematic avenues: the nature of existence, the quest for identity, the pursuit of spiritual meaning, the search for a McDonald's sign.

Van Sant at least manages to make maximum use of the landscape, which ranges from the scrubby rock desert to rolling sand dunes, from Monument Valley-style canyons to salt flats.

At the start of the Gerrys' trek, they encounter another group of hikers - all heading towards "the Thing", a destination that is never explained - which causes the two friends to veer from the trail as they have no wish to consort with "tourists".

After a while they stop, rest, and decide to return to their car, only to walk in the wrong direction. Soon they realise that they are hopelessly lost.

As the two city boys trudge unquestioningly onwards through the landscape you realise they are woefully ill-prepared for their trip, lacking compass, proper clothing, supplies, or water. Nor do they have the wits to think around their dilemma. Their shards of conversation expose them as a pair of ageing slackers.

Sparse in the extreme, this film belongs to what might be called the John Cage School of movie-making. At one point, Affleck's Gerry mysteriously finds himself atop a tall boulder, unable to get down, with no memory of how he came to be there. Damon's Gerry makes a "dirt mattress" to break his fall. But this momentary intrigue goes no further. Are they experiencing an epiphany, or are they supposed to be in Hell?

By far the most mesmerising scene is the one in which they walk through the desert at night as the Satie-like piano signature of Arvo Pˆrt's music, which tinkles its way through the film, gives way to a disturbing noise that sounds like shovelfuls of pebbles rolling down a huge tin roof.

The film is beautifully composed but indulgently absurd.

Gerry
Cert: 15