WHAT REMAINS (2023) review
written by: Ran Huang and Megan Everett-Skarsgård
produced by: Jessica Chen
directed by: Ran Huang
rating: Jessica Chen, Ran Huang, Jupe Louhelainen & Timo Vierimaa
runtime: 126 min.
U.S. release date: June 21, 2024 (theatrical & VOD)
Three complex and problematic characters are at the heart of “What Remains,” the feature-length debut from Chinese visual artist Ran Huang. Set in the 1990s, the story is loosely based on actual events in which a Swedish man, Sture Bergwall, confessed to more than thirty Scandinavian murders while he was a patient in a mental institution. He wound up being convicted of eight of those murders that occurred between 1994 and 2001, but then withdrew his confessions in 2008, stating he had been heavily medicated and sought attention. The real-life details are unbelievable and intriguing, which cannot be said for the strange behavior on display in this feature.
As the film opens, we meet Sigge Storm (Gustav Skarsgård), a quiet and emotionally withdrawn man who’s spent years in a psychiatric hospital in Finland. The greasy-haired, bearded man is timid, avoiding eye contact with others as he begins to determine what life will be like outside his hospitalization. He attempts to procure an apartment not far from where his brother and sister-in-law live, but in his naivete, he gets robbed at knifepoint in the apartment elevator. This happens on the poor guy’s birthday, so it’s hard not to feel for the sad sack. When he returns to the hospital with his tail between his legs, a handful of staff greet him outside and sing “Happy Birthday” to him.
Not long after that, we see Sigge, who now prefers to be called Mads Lake, overhearing local news on a radio announcing that the body of a young boy has been unburied. He claims he has something to do with that boy…as well as others, and soon he’s confessed to several murders. His therapist, Anna Rudebeck (Andrea Riseborough), informs Mads that his release has been canceled due to this sudden confession. We then find Rudebeck working closely with Soren Rank (Stellan Skarsgård), an investigator who may or may not have assisted in the original investigation of that missing boy. Their approach is diametrically different at first – she is more empathetic towards Mads considering the alleged abuse from his childhood, while the impatient Soren is gruff and impatiently wants the details of Mads heinous acts to surface – yet at some point, the three of them wind up going in miserable circles as the truth is pursued.
It doesn’t take long to figure out that “What Remains” is a fictionalized narrative of actual events, more concerned with a character study of the three main characters. Despite being absorbed by the performances from the Skarsgård father-and-son duo and Riseborough, I couldn’t help but notice how each displayed such odd behavior and questionable professionalism that no one ever addresses. It seems strange that Mads has presumably been receiving inpatient care for years long, yet at no point did any of his supposed serial killings come up in therapy. There’s a subplot with Mads’s brother, Martin (Darren McStay), in which there is an obvious estranged sibling relationship (primarily due to Mads’s mental state), but that is mostly left unexplored.
Anna also exhibits strange behavior that mostly revolves around her continuous efforts to get pregnant, working closely with a fertility clinic. At one point, Anna has sex in her back seat with a man she just picked up, then proceeds to kick him out of the vehicle and lift her knees to her chest in hopes of meeting her goal. She has a mentor (Éva Magyar) who supposedly also works in the same profession, but at no point do they discuss other patients, nor do we see Anna focus on any patient other than Mads.
As for Soren, he often seems distracted, which could have to do with problems he’s having with his ex-wife. Midway through the story, he learns that his ex will be moving to Australia with their daughter while on the phone with her. He could understandably be preoccupied with that personal matter. There are no scenes involving Soren attempting to gather any corroborating evidence to support the claims Mads has made. It’s also odd that he’s all right with driving Anna and Mads to different supposed crime sights, especially how unpredictable and erratic Mads behavior tends to be. At one point, they (we assume Anna and Soren) allow Mads to be interviewed by a reporter in a room with no one else to observe. When he goes off and physically attacks her, Huang cuts to the next scene with no one addressing what we just saw. The accumulation of baffling behavior here is, well, baffling.
Huang co-wrote the screenplay with Stellan’s wife/Gustaf’s mother, Megan Everett-Skarsgård, and I find myself pondering the rationale for some of their decisions here. Maybe such a story would benefit from the episodic nature of a limited series, which would allow for logic and expand on characterization. The focus here seems to be delivering a moody and dour mise-en-scène established by cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt (a frequent collaborator with Kelly Reichardt), with the use of earthy gray tones and natural lighting.
Ultimately, the talented actors here portray characters that leave us with lingering questions. “What Remains” is the kind of film that finds you doing your own investigative work about what happened. It turns out there is a 2015 documentary out there somewhere on this subject and one that was adapted in 2019 into a narrative feature called “The Perfect Patient” by Swedish director Mikael Håfström. Obviously, the subject matter is both curious and compelling, but Huang and Everett-Skarsgård’s approach left me wondering…what remains?
RATING: **1/2
