The story here is, at heart, a fairly standard 'taut' suspense thriller with a few modest twists. The cast ranges from workhorse to strong, including should've-been-stars Tamlyn Tomita and Wes Studi, plus support from Brion James, M. Emmet Walsh, Xander Berkeley, etc. Brett Cullen comes off a bit wooden in the lead role, but I can't be sure it's his fault.
The real problems here are the slow, uneven pacing, the even more uneven atmosphere, and the often amateurish direction that makes the actors stand around and deliver dialogue in extended chunks of stagey-looking shot-reverse shot and too much camera motion. The editing doesn't seem to have helped, but it's hard to tell what's an editing error and what was a failed attempt to fix the direction. The script and story could have been punched up a bit, too.
Tamlyn Tomita is luminous, and a lot of the cast is working hard here, but it doesn't come together.
The real problems here are the slow, uneven pacing, the even more uneven atmosphere, and the often amateurish direction that makes the actors stand around and deliver dialogue in extended chunks of stagey-looking shot-reverse shot and too much camera motion. The editing doesn't seem to have helped, but it's hard to tell what's an editing error and what was a failed attempt to fix the direction. The script and story could have been punched up a bit, too.
Tamlyn Tomita is luminous, and a lot of the cast is working hard here, but it doesn't come together.
