Ellen Barkin plays an American sky-diver in Spain who has apparently crash-landed, awakening bruised and disheveled and with memory loss; her attempts to get back to civilization are thwarted by a myriad of oddballs who paw at her like demons from Hell. What might have been an interesting, artistic treatise on purgatory has ended up stagnant and confounding in director Mary Lambert's hands. Perhaps with someone like David Lynch at the helm, "Siesta" may have drawn the viewer in not just with imagery but some haunting subtext as well. Lambert is only interested in externals--and, as a result, her film is portentous and shallow. Lots of talented people litter the cast, but only a handful of scenes (Barkin walking the high-wire above a crowd, her run-in with a deranged cabbie, and the well-staged finale) are astute or memorable. *1/2 from ****
Review of Siesta
