Institute Benjamenta

Brilliantly executed and typically inscrutable, this feature debut of The Brothers Quay will delight fans of the enigmatic duo's "re-animated" shorts, though others may find the pervasive murk and funereal pace off-putting. Jakob von Gunten (Mark Rylance) enrolls at the titular training school for servants, a moribund pile run by despotic headmaster Herr Benjamenta (Fassbinder favorite Gottfried John) and his seemingly bewitched sister Lisa (Alice Krige). Once engaged in the Institute's bizarre curriculum (there is only one, endlessly repeated lesson and much of the day is spent performing ludicrous exercises involving forks and napkins), Jakob becomes increasingly...