Written by Harris Kassim
Talking about perfect timing with all the things that have been going on with the pandemic and being quarantined at home, The Platform is a textbook film about feeling helpless as you’re being locked in a confinement. The film made its debut at Toronto International Film Festival last year in September and since then has created a buzz for being one of the most unique takes on dystopian thrillers that we’ve seen in a while. Being the first spot in Netflix’s Top 10 in Malaysia, it surely caught everyone’s attention but then again, doesn’t mean that it’s great too.
Set in the dystopian future, prisoners were housed in vertical cells that went for hundreds of levels. Each day, a tableful of meals are served for inmates from the highest level, gradually descending to the bottom which eventually starves the lower cell inmates while they slowly lose their sanity. Goreng, a new prisoner, decides that something should be done to the system’s inequality as he struggles in his journey to send a message to the administration above about what’s really going on in the prison tower.
I don’t know where I should start with this one, because the concept of the film is so unique but this film also has a lot of flaws that takes it down a few notches.
First off, dystopian thrillers are usually a hit or miss, and most of the time it all depends on the writing. The Platform is written in a way that the audience needs to think in order to fully acknowledge every little thing that is being shown on screen. You’ll have to think a bit as the plot revolves around the idea of one man’s perspective that can be manipulative due to the condition he’s in. The plot involves hallucination and dream sequences that helps carry the story forward and it’s well presented.
The acting for this film is also something that we shouldn’t overlook. Iván Massagué plays the main protagonist, whom I shit you not ,is called Goreng. He woke up in the cell completely oblivious with the prison system and his character development towards the end is certainly something to acknowledge. There is also another favourite character of mine by the name of Baharat, a religious inmate who holds the same motivation as Goreng to infiltrate the administration for the way the prisoners were being treated. Baharat is such a likable character in this film and I’m pretty sure that most audiences feel the same way too.
Another amazing thing to point out from this film is that the atmosphere is phenomenal. The production did a good job at portraying the dullness and lifelessness of the world that these humans are living in, really accentuating the disgustingness of the situation that they’re put in. The use of the novel Don Quixote in the plot is also suitable and not forced as Goreng shares the similar motivation that Don Quixote has in the book, a search for freedom and justice.
Despite all of that, I can’t dismiss the flaws that unfortunately hurt the film story wise. According to The NY Times, the screenplay focuses on a brutal experiment in social conditioning and blunt Darwinism, which is very noticeable when you see the types of people that are being confined from top to bottom. This has led to many unexplainable plot holes that bothers me even when the film has ended. For example, there is one character in particular who progressively went on a killing spree as she’s finding her child, but it was never concluded which is frustrating because she’s a central that carries the plot further.
As we go into the final act of the film, The Platform went from being an intriguing psychological thriller, to a point where I feel like “Why did they choose to proceed with this ending?”. Some might say that the ending will need you to think in order to fully understand. But I understood the ending very well; it’s just very underwhelming and they could’ve gone with a different approach. The thing with a plate of panna cotta and a little girl being ‘the message’ is poorly executed, which sucks because I really like the concept of it.
I give The Platform a 6.5 out 10. It’s definitely a good watch for people who enjoy solving mystery and dystopian settings. The writing needs a little bit more treatment for it to be good, but all in all, it’s fairly watchable and you should not miss this one.
