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Mark Jenkin continues to experiment with genre without compromising on his very specific style with Rose of Nevada. The director found fame with the loosely written 2019’s Bait before releasing the more focused Enys Men in 2022. Jenkin brings his trademark Cornish fisherman charm to an eerie ghost story.
Rose of Nevada follows Nick (George MacKay), a local of a Cornish fishing village, and Liam (Callum Turner), a stranger drifting through the English coastal town. This village is haunted by a mysterious fishing boat that was lost years prior. The loss of the titular Rose of Nevada devastated the local community, caused the disappearance of the crew, and forced those left behind to be wrecked by survivor’s guilt. One of the men who disappeared was Alan, who left an angry Tina (Rosalind Eleazar), a single mother of two now-adult daughters. The other was Luke, the son of locals Billy (Adrian Rawlins) and his wife (Mary Woodvine), who are forever haunted by his disappearance. The loss of both men hangs over this village, even decades after they were presumed dead at sea.
When the fishing boat reappears three decades later, the owner enlists Liam and Nick to get it back up and running. Both men chose to embark on the job for different reasons. Nick feels shame after the roof of his family home falls apart, and he can’t keep his partner and daughter as safe as he would like. Liam is a drifter with no money, no apparent loved ones, and nowhere to stay.
Mark Jenkin’s Rose of Nevada Blends Haunting Atmosphere with Time-Bending Mystery
The film is best when entered without prior knowledge, but for those happy to be spoiled, when the two men arrive back after their first trip, it’s suddenly 1993. The village is mostly unchanged, except that the fishing industry is still thriving, and the community believes they are the original crew members of the Rose of Nevada.
Liam, who now has a built-in new family, accepts his new role while Nick struggles to take on a new life. Rose of Nevada marks the first time Jenkin has worked with recognizable Hollywood actors. McKay and Turner both easily meld into Jenkin’s specific style of writing and acting requirements, although MacKay easily outacts his co-star. Turner brings a laddish energy to his role, but doesn’t add any real layers to the role of a man happy to accept his fate as a father and husband. MacKay, an actor who has been putting in interesting performances across a range of genres for years, adds a layer of tortured anxiety to Nick. Unlike Liam, Nick has someone to miss and something to get home for.
Jenkin underwrites Liam and Nick, the duo often sitting on a rocking fisherman’s ship in silence. This isn’t a film full of long monologues and witty dialogue. The director shows the characters in cramped spaces, sitting in silence, waiting for the realization to play out on their face. The film gives audiences just enough material to make them care about the two.
The film struggles after the first time travel and gets stuck in a narrative rut, much like the characters who spend much of the action stuck in a time loop. There is perhaps one missing layer from the second act of Rose of Nevada. With a small cast and minimal sets, the film struggles to maintain its momentum once the science fiction/horror genre makes itself known. Once the time-travel element emerges from the script, the film could have benefited from another plot dimension to maintain intrigue.
The ambiguity and lack of clues may frustrate some audiences. The film is purposely bare, forcing the audience to fill in the gaps themselves. There are plenty of hints throughout the film, the nameplate kicked in the seat to reappear, the hat that Liam wears in a quasi-incestuous way, and the warning messages Nick finds carved in his cabin. All could be coincidences or hints of a larger, supernatural presence. There are breadcrumbs that people know more than they are letting on, that there is a big conspiracy at play, but that is another thread unresolved. Mark Jenkin is not a writer/director who ever wants to make his intentions too obvious.
While Rose of Nevada is Jenkin’s most accessible work to date, he hasn’t compromised his signature style to appease audiences. He continues to shoot on 16mm and records the audio in post-production, so the film feels like it’s being shown out of sync on faulty projection equipment. The boost in resources has only helped Jenkin enhance his uncanny style, creating a feast for the eyes and ears.
These technical choices add to the creepy atmosphere. His post-production dubbing, scratched editing, and haunting soundtrack feel like stepping into The Twilight Zone. Everything about this world is uncanny, although it’s not always easy to put your finger on what’s wrong with the world unfolding on screen. Somehow, the not knowing is the scariest thing about Rose of Nevada.
Jenkin made a name for himself with Bait, a subdued drama with a bite that explores the loss of communities in places like Cornwall due to the rise of tourism and the lack of work, which forces locals out of their hometowns. Rose of Nevada continues these points, noting how much the culture of these seaside towns is being lost with the death of local fishing boats. Even in the three decades the Rose of Nevada travels back to, the difference in how bustling the seafront is is monumental.
The sea is bedfellows with ghost stories. Cornish fishermen have long had a tradition of myths and legends, and Rose of Nevada adds to this pantheon. The clanking score and fishing machinery hint at the mechanics of time, while the rip in Nick’s ceiling could symbolize the fabric of time being slashed. The sea has always been a place for unsettling possibilities, and Rose of Nevada uses this to all its haunting glory.
In the moment, Rose of Nevada is an entrancing film, primarily due to its craftsmanship and technical mastery. But, once the film finishes, it’s an empty affair with a lack of a third act that will fail to linger with you. Jenkin’s hopeless ending, which hints that time never changes or resets itself and that we are all stuck in an infinite loop, makes the overall impact feel flatter than it should.
Grade: B-
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