A scene from Proxy (IFC Midnight)

For about 45 minutes, Proxy is a disturbing, intriguing original indie horror film focusing on the term “indie” (character, rather than plot, driven). Then a marked change in tone takes place, a really bad storyline that torpedoes the whole thing. Plot points and theme overtake character development. It starts off Bergman and ends up De Palma… and not the good De Palma, either.

It follows Esther (a stunning Alexia Rasmussen), a young woman who has endured a brutal experience and who tries to put her life back together. She was clearly depressed before the incident. Now she is worse. We observe her and her grief, and as we learn more of her life, we realize there is something twisted going on around the edges. The tension slowly builds and after an absolutely bravura moment (though again, twisted), the air is let out of the balloon and we have an overlong meditation focusing on a different, less interesting character: Melanie, who Esther meets in a support group seems.

As the two become friends, Melanie gives Esther advice in coping and seems to be her only friend. Their lives intertwine inexorably. Melanie is far more together with a sweet, yet detached husband and what looks like a pretty full life. She claims she keeps her grief on the inside. This turns out to be a bit of a falsehood. There is more to her that meets the eye.

The film is very good at placing discreet markers so that everything makes sense in the end. It that way, the script is quite tidy. The acting is superb. The cinematography is also well done. There’s plenty of flat, empty space and dull, burnished interiors evoking the characters’ inner life. There’s very little actual violence, but when it occurs, it is brutal and jarring.

However, I wish I could wholeheartedly recommend this film. It is clever and tries something different, but ultimately it is too long by a half hour and too enthralled by its own plot twists to really work.