Review: Barking Water (2009)

Barking Water
2009
80 minutes
Not Rated

by Scott Mendelson

One can’t help but feel like a bully for picking on a film like Barking Water. Shot on what surely was a shoestring budget; this third feature by writer/director Sterlin Harjo (whose previous film, Four Sheets to the Wind, won the ‘Special Jury Prize’ at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival) is basically a tone poem concerning a dying Native American man as he heads on a final road trip of potential redemption and peace. This is obviously a labor of love for all involved, but you’ve seen variations on this story many times before. Barking Water does little to differentiate itself from the pack.

A token amount of plot - Frankie (Richard Ray Whitman) is a Choctaw Indian who is at last succumbing to disease and old age. But before he departs this Earth, he convinces his friend and occasional lover Irene (Casey Camp-Horinek) to drive him to see his estranged daughter, so that he may make amends for sins past and meet his grandchild for the first time. Although Irene is reluctant as their friendship ended years ago on bad terms, she eventually agrees to soothe her own guilt, and their friendship is renewed as they embark on one final adventure together.

The rest of the film unfolds basically as you’d expect it to. There are long, dialogue-free scenes of characters simply watching the road and the scenery around them (often constructed as music-video style montages), there are encounters with colorful locals, and there are moments of shared pain and reconciliation. There is quite a bit of atmosphere to this film, but it’s difficult to disguise the fact that very little happens.

I cannot go on at length about favorite moments or favorite dialogue because there are very few incidents and not a lot of dialogue. The majority of the film takes place in a single moving automobile, and much of that time is spent in quiet reflection. Again, the picture attempts to be a tone poem, but the film fails to define itself past its well-worn narrative hook. For much of its length, it is basically a filmic road trip through rural Oklahoma.

To be fair, the acting is more than adequate, and Richard Ray Whitman is genuinely noteworthy. He has an incredibly detailed face, something suggesting a colorful James Bond villain. Also, the film is not overly sentimental, so the moments where the emotion does push through feel earned and not cheap.

Barking Water is not a bad film by any definition, merely a relatively uninvolving one. The final moments have a certain power, but then it is difficult not to be moved by the closure on a long and storied life. Unless you are a fan of Native American cinema, I cannot truly recommend seeing Barking Water. It may be a noble failure, but that does not make it a success.

Grade: C+