“Alchemy of the Spirit” - Movie Review

 

“Alchemy of the Spirit”

Movie Review

 

Alchemy of the Spirit, starring Xander Berkeley as Oliver Black, Sarah Clarke as Evelyn, and Mink Stole as Alex, was written and directed by Steve Balderson. The beginning of Alchemy of the Spirit is an ending. When Oliver Black awakens, he discovers that his wife Evelyn has passed away while she was sleeping. After failing to deal with her passing and being anxious to keep her around, he makes the decision to put her body on ice rather than reporting it.

While all of this is going on, Johnny gets a call from his agent Alex giving him a commission he could only imagine. He chooses to utilize Evelyn's body as the idea for his greatest work because she served as his lifelong inspiration. In the five days she has left with him before ascending to the next plane of existence, she will direct the job.

That sounds like the setup for a horror movie, don't you think? What about a dark comedy? Before you watch Alchemy of the Spirit, you'll want to clear your mind of those ideas because writer/director Steve Balderson has taken a completely other path.

With a capital A, Alchemy of the Spirit is a work of art. It is a reflection on loss and sadness, creativity and the arts, and the nature of life after this mortal coil. This artistic goal is clear from the first frames, in which Hanuman Brown-cinematography Eagle's captures Oliver's reactions as well as images of the surrounding trees and woodland critters peering in at him through the windows.

Alchemy of the Spirit essentially has two characters for the majority of its running period. In the first half, there is a phone call with Alex and a message about eggs left on the answering machine, but all we ever see are Oliver and Evelyn's ghosts; not even in a flashback do we see her alive. We don't see another person until halfway through the film, when Alex briefly enters the frame.

Of course, it's also entirely plausible that Oliver is living in the house by himself and is experiencing all of this as a hallucination. We are aware that he is at least somewhat delusional, and the break could have easily been much worse.

Although Oliver ventures into town in a late-film scene, Balderson doesn't make any indications either way that this is the case.

The main issue is that for the majority of the movie, nothing even vaguely spectacular happens. Up until a late point in the movie, there is only a countdown represented by a bunch of stars until Evelyn is gone. The majority of Alchemy of the Spirit consists of the two of them talking and her discussing what her spirit guides have told her. It's hardly dull, but the lack of a compelling conflict makes the story less than riveting.

However, performances by Berkeley and Clarke assist to make up for that. They get along well and function well as a team. The movie will be most interesting to viewers who are more interested in concepts than in a linear story. Others might discover that there is simply not enough to keep them interested. The movie didn't completely captivate us, but it kept our attention and didn't make us fall asleep. At least good enough for a single watch.

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