Today is my first full day at the Sundance Film Festival. Snow is falling on Park City, Utah as I make my way through the slush from venue to venue, taking in movies that are generally revered as some of the edgiest independent films in the world. So far, they have not failed to deliver. Controversial, spiritually evocative, and occasionally unnerving, this is cinema designed to reorient your thinking.

The films on my list for the day: The Surrogate, Red Lights, and 5 Broken Cameras. Each presents its own set of challenges. Sundance is not for the faint of heart, the films are often raw and unsettling – you get the sense that these filmmakers really want to say something. I listened. Now it’s my turn. So here are some short takes on festival films coming soon to a theater near you.

The Surrogate

Based on a true story, John Hawkes stars as Mark O’Brien, a poet and journalist who, though in his early forties, is still a virgin. Polio is the barrier standing between him and his search for love and marriage. Afflicted in his youth, Mark spends all but a few hours of each day locked within the life-sustaining embrace of an iron lung machine. His muscles are uselessly weak, but he is not paralyzed. He feels everything. Mark has polio, but he refuses to let the disease define him. He is a devout Catholic, and a good third of the film takes place in a church, where he confesses, complains (with remarkable humor), and seeks the counsel of Father Brenan, played with tremendous affection and depth by William H. Macy. Mark is frustrated by his inability to fulfill what most would regard as a common, reasonable desire – physical intimacy with a woman. After failed attempts to secure a wife, and recognizing that he is quickly approaching what he refers to as his “use by date” (he has already far exceeded normal life expectancy) he turns to a therapist who suggests that he engage a sexual surrogate (played by Helen Hunt). And this choice is what opens up, for the watching audience, transcendent questions about sexual morality, and the consequences of connections forged from intimate contact outside the bonds of marriage. The film looks, unstintingly, at both. Whether you approve of the conclusions, The Surrogate is a movie that pushes the limits, daring viewers to resist knee-jerk reactions against any hint of situational ethics. The Surrogate has already been picked up for distribution by Fox Searchlight – but the subject matter and clinical nudity is likely to keep it out of your local multiplex. Still, it will likely have a substantial art house presence.

Red Lights

Morality is not the only narrative struggle for festival-goers at Sundance. As was the case last year, religious and supernatural themes abound.

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