A thriller with a good concept, but not much thrill.
The story: after a call for help from her sister, a women comes to Manhattan to find her sister has become part of a cult. The sister insists she is fine, but only because the cult is forcing her and now the sister has to find a way to save her sister and escape from Manhattan.
Was it good?
No, but I don't want to rip it apart because it does have a nice, simple concept and it didn't do anything horribly wrong and did some things right. However, it's also the kind of movie filmmakers should fear -- it's bland. Even worse than horrible, it just don't make any real impression at all. That's why I compare it to film school films -- it is competantly made on a technical level (sound, camera, acting, concept, structure) so it shows some knowledge, but it never reaches beyond technique -- it never finds the art.
The good: let's start with the concept. While cults aren't really something that feel current, it makes for a nice concept. It has some give and take too, since people usually voluntarily join the cult so the play of is she there of her own free will or is something wrong gives the story an extra dimension from just a "save the sister" story. It is also a well structured story, with good story beats including a mid-point twist and a strong low point.
However, there are a lot of little problems that sink the movie. First, while I just mentioned the the script is good with the big beats of the concept, but what it doesn't do is get underneath the concept. It doesn't get us into the world of the cult -- it doesn't show up the fascination with cults, it doesn't make the cult feel sinister. This cult is just a couple guys, ya know. This is also bad because as the sisters are trying to escape, once they get outside the walls of the cult there's never a feeling like they will be caught (even though they keep running for another twenty minutes) because the reach of the cult is only to about three people. (And for some reason the girls don't go to the police or ask anyone for help...there's no reason given why they wouldn't they just don't.) A better script, one that got into the concept more would have helped...a lot.
But it goes beyond the script. The camera work and set design...it is all competant, but none of it gives you that sense of dread. None of it generates excitement. The bland camerawork is especially noticable during the chase scenes which have no energy or excitement (either visially or storywise).
Again, I don't want to sound like it was a horrible film, but sometimes bland can be worse than bad and I think this is a movie for filmmakers to watch to see what a bland film is like. There is nothing really surprising here, nothing that grabs your attention. Even the plot twists are pretty bland -- nothing people haven't seen a hundred times before. If you are going to put the time and effort into making a film, it's worth it to try to figure out how you are going to capture the audience's attention. You can make it claustrophobic (SAW), or you can add an interesting visual style (RUN LOLA RUN) or throw in some scenes that are shocking and memorable (Deniro with the baseball bat in UNTOUCHABLES). You have to give it a WOW Factor and that's part of what's missing here.
Because unfortunately, a well made bland film will often be forgotten faster than a bad film.
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