TRIANGLE: The original INCEPTION?

WARNING: may contain spoilers.

My favourite film of last year was Inception; Christopher Nolan's epic multi-million dollar mind-bender that is as clever as it is spectacular. I truly love that film and credit Nolan with restoring my faith in the Hollywood blockbuster.

At the weekend, I watched a film called Triangle on DVD, that was originally released in 2009. I missed it at the time and regret not seeing it at the cinema. Judging by its takings at the cinema, it seems like I'm not the only person who over-looked it. It's a great shame as I really, really liked it. And after spending possibly hours on the internet afterwards looking for answers and explanations as to what actually happened, it led me to believe that Triangle might be the original Inception.

Now, before you start calling me an idiot who knows nothing about film, I know that, obviously, there have been many cryptic mind-thrillers made in the past that are similar to and have inspired films such as Triangle and Inception - Vertigo, Dark City, The Matrix, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are examples - so what I am talking about is more specific (and not only to bring up the fact that both films are directed by a British bloke called Christopher).

Triangle is directed by Christopher Smith - an up-and-coming British film-maker who also made Creep (which I haven't seen), Severance (a post-Shaun of the Dead Brit-horror which I thought was rubbish) and, most recently, Black Death (apparently very good). It is about a single mother, Jess, (brilliantly played by Melissa George), who joins a group of friends on a doomed sailing trip to the Atlantic Ocean. A freak weather storm capsizes the boat and then a large ominous ship conveniently passes them by shortly afterwards and they board it, thinking they have been rescued. Unfortunately they haven't and instead weird, scary, violent things start happening. So far, so Twilight Zone. But, as with Inception, there is much more going on underneath the surface. Inception posed as a kind of heist thriller set in the 'architecture of the mind' but in reality (excuse the pun) was more about one man's, Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), quest for personal redemption. Triangle, likewise, appears at first to be a horror film set on a scary ship but ends up covering the same themes that Inception does of loss, guilt and redemption and once again becomes about one character's search for meaning behind a tragic event. Like Cobb, Jess might be responsible for something terrible but she's lost touch of reality and can no longer remember.

Both films are well made, well performed, and gripping. They both have twisty timelines and confuse what is real and what is simply in the mind. They both must have taken ages to write due to their complex narratives (Nolan admitted that it took nearly a decade to write Inception) and they both have the kind of finale that will leave you either intrigued or reeling, depending on how you feel about open-endings. Most importantly, they are (I think) both as clever as they think they are (i.e. if you think carefully about them afterwards, everything adds up).

So why wasn't Triangle more of a success? Well, for a start, the budget was apparently a measly $12 million compared to Inception's $200 million. Also, Nolan's back catalogue is pretty special and therefore 'earnt' him the respect of Hollywood meaning he could do pretty much what he wanted. Smith hasn't got there yet. Hopefully he will.

Check Triangle out if you like and let me know what you think.

Triangle - tragedy posing as sci-fi.