KONTROLL
Directed & Written by: Nimród Antal.
Produced by: Tamás Hutlassa.
Director of Photography: Gyula Pados.
Edited by: István Király.
Music by: NEO.
Released by: THINKFilm.
Language: Hungarian with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Hungary. 106 min. Rated: R.
With: Sándor Csányi, Zoltán Mucsi, Csaba Pindroch & Eszter Balla.

While riding the escalator down into the Budapest subway, a boozy blond struggles to open a champagne bottle. Barely able to stand up, let alone balance on her high heels, she is seemingly knocked over by the rush of air from an arriving train. She vanishes. All that is left of her are her shoes. As a result, a ragtag team of ticket controllers is advised to be on the lookout for jumpers, of which there have been allegedly seven within a month. (Unlike the New York subway, passengers here must validate their tickets before boarding.)

Bulcsú (Sándor Csányi), whose body will take quite a beating as the film goes on, swears he has seen a hooded man lurking about as another victim falls before a speeding train. But Bulcsú mysteriously doesn't dare go above ground. At night, he sleeps on the platform floor. Within his abrasive crew is Muki (Csaba Pindroch), a narcoleptic with a face stained with catsup, into which he had fallen asleep; and an inept, timid young man who has never before held a job. It's no wonder the ticket controllers are met with hostility. In an amusing montage, passengers do anything to beat being fined for not having a ticket: a stutterer exasperates and deflates one controller’s patience, while Japanese tourists play dumb.

Kontroll is not unlike the existential comedy I Heart Huckabees. Both have an uncompromisingly insular tone that doesn't let up. You either embrace it or remain at a distance. Whereas Huckabees is much more optimistic and slapstick, Kontroll depicts a darkly absurdist universe completely set within the bowels of the underground, where a woman inconspicuously rides the train in a bear suit, after-hour raves materialize, and men discuss a cooking recipe while cleaning body parts off the track.

The film does feature riveting chase scenes. In one suspenseful sequence, Bulcsú is challenged to go railing: jumping down onto the tracks in a race to the next platform before the midnight express approaches from behind. But the film's symbolism is too obvious. At 106 minutes, this episodic and claustrophobic world, laden with meaning, feels too drawn out. Kent Turner
April 1, 2005