“Silent River” is the latest movie directed and authored by Chris Chan Lee, known widely for his past works like “Yellow,” “Undoing,” and more. The movie stars West Liang in the role of Elliot, and Amy Tsang portrays Greta and Max Fargo as Patrick. The movie is a psychological thriller and follows Elliot, who’s desperate to revive his marriage with Julie. Elliot and his wife Julie weren’t on talking terms, and the former wished to reunite with her so she could give him a second chance, and they could live happily ever after. Elliot meets Greta (Amy Tsang) at the motel where he is staying, looking exactly like his wife. Like Elliot, Greta is also desperately looking for her husband, Patrick (Max Fargo), and hides a greater truth.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Silent River’ Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Movie?
The movie opens with a slow and aimless scene where Elliot (West Liang) is driving through the desert. Elliot stops at a motel, rents a room, and seems to be struggling with something in his mind that is quite unclear at the moment. Elliot enters the room carrying his big black suitcase, drops off the luggage, walks outside to fix his car, and accidentally burns his hand. Elliot then strides back to his motel room to wash up his wound, and he receives a call. The caller demands money, but Elliot somehow delays the issue. As Elliot sat on the chair to take his antibiotics and gather his thoughts, a loud and vigorous knock on the door diverted his attention. As Elliot slowly approaches to open it, BOOM, there’s another door! So, the two rooms are interconnected by the same door? But why?
Elliot Longing To Start Afresh
Alert! Warning: The plot will likely lead you into a haze where you’ll have more questions than answers. We see Elliot sitting beside the pool, looking tense and depressed, and he is approached by a beautiful woman who inquires about his plans and concerns. Elliot replies that he’s hit a dead end in his business, has suffered a heavy loss, and is currently unable to pay his employees. Elliot also makes his excitement known about meeting his wife, who he has not talked to for months. The movie is very confusing and often tries to derail its audience in a different direction. At the outset, the movie hints that Elliot is on the run, and the phone call at the motel suggests that he has borrowed money from loan sharks, but in reality, Elliot is looking to get back with his wife, and the phone call he received earlier was from one of his employees, who requests that he clear all his debts. As the sun sets, Elliot calls his wife, Julie, to inform her that he’s coming soon to meet her, but discovers that she has already moved on and is back with her ex. The truth swept Elliot off his feet, and saddened, he drowned himself in guilt and alcohol. He dearly misses his wife and chides himself for letting her go. Elliot has hit rock bottom and is struggling to pull himself up; he spends hours reminiscing about the memories he has of his wife. In one scene, we see a black hand crawling up to his upper body and reaching out to his face, and maybe the black hand symbolizes the grief he has been drowning himself in. His sorrow, anxieties, and panic attacks are slowly consuming his sanity, and sooner or later, they will push him onto the path from which he can never return. In the beginning, Elliot and his wife had an ideal marriage. But the passage of time and maybe physical separation, as well as his participation in illegal business, only served to exacerbate the situation. In contrast, Elliot was obligated to travel for business, and although his wife ultimately learned to support him, she found it difficult to adjust to life without him at first, and that’s when she decided to call off their marriage. This newfound reality is way too heavy for him to bear.
Greta And The ‘Spiral’
As the “Silent River” proceeds, Elliot encounters a mysterious woman named Greta, who looks exactly like his ex-wife Julie and approaches him while he’s having supper. The scene is quite strange since only Elliot is able to see Greta. Elliot’s senses caution him to keep clear of Greta, and he decides to investigate her strange acquaintance. Elliot knows that there’s more than meets the eye, and he simply can’t trust her because she looks like the woman he loves. One day, while Elliot was spying on Greta, she approached him to help her transfer a box from her car to her room. But what was in the box? In reality, Greta was hiding her husband’s look-alike robotic model in her closet. Elliot soon discovers her secret when he breaks into her room while she’s away at work. We also learn that it’s Greata who’s staying on the other side of the interlinked door.
Elliot had been having nonsensical nightmares ever since he began spying on Greta. In the dreams, he saw himself getting murdered, cops walking around his dead corpse, and police investigating the scene. Maybe this was a premonition that suggested Greta posed a significant threat. Elliot overhears Greta struggling with something, enters her room, and finds her struggling to place P2 (the robot) on the bed. Greta reveals to him that the nightmares he’s experiencing aren’t real. In reality, they’ve been stuck in a “Spiral,” and the events unfolding in front of their eyes are just hallucinations that are messing with their minds. The Spiral created layers of realism and illusion, making it very difficult for Elliot to spot what’s real and what’s not, eventually making him make the wrong decision. This string of inexplicable events may be the culmination of a cruel mind game someone has been playing to torment them and force them to do what they want. But the question remains, who? Greta continues, saying that her husband Patrick developed a sophisticated robotic model called P2 at work, but his coworkers eventually turned on him and tried to steal the credit for it. Patrick’s coworkers had abducted Patrick and wished to trade his life for P2. This explains why Greta is trapped in the whirlpool of riddles and illusions until she returns to Patrick’s robot, P2. Elliot is caught on the web because his ex-wife, Julie, looks exactly like Greta and could be a medium to mislead her or spy on her.
‘Silent River’ Ending Explained – Did Elliot And Julie Make It Out Of The ‘Spiral’?
The truth, having been revealed, Elliot decides to help Greta rescue her husband, and the two go about devising a strategy. According to the plan, Greta will pay a visit to the enigma queen, Amanda, the one who rules over the SPIRAL world, and let her know that she’s ready to comply with all her demands. Secondly, they’ll have to find the stranger lingering in the desert, reward him with P2, rescue Patrick and get out of the Spiral. As planned, Greta meets Amanda and makes her aware of her intention to comply. She then moves on to the second part of the plan and reaches the trading spot, where Dakota is waiting to carry out the switch. Greta offers Dakota a bag full of coins and P2 and rescues her husband. Greta speeds up the car, ready to leave everything behind and start afresh. But the Spiral has already messed up Elliot’s mind, and he hallucinates an old woman driving the car instead of Greta, causing Elliot to make yet another wrong move. Elliot begins smashing the car’s door and bails out, but Greta and Patrick aren’t ready to sacrifice their only chance of getting out of the Spiral and keep driving. Elliot runs back to the motel and experiences the same vision of himself getting murdered, implying that he’s back in the Spiral and is forever trapped.
“Silent River” is an accurate depiction of how imagination can contradict one’s reality and can be dangerous and chaotic if one fails to distinguish between the two, as seen in Elliot’s case. Elliot was on his way to freedom, but the strange visions made him jump back into the Spiral.
“Silent River” is a sci-fi drama film directed by Chris Chan Lee.
