OK, let's be fair here: this movie is nicely filmed, and decently acted. What it doesn't have is a strong sense of direction.
There are exceptions: at one point, the sheriff is sitting in the town cafe talking to the owner, and a strange feeling came over me: the scene worked. The dialog was believable, the actors disappeared into their parts and the character interaction was convincing. Not an important scene, but the only one that didn't have us questioning some part of what we were seeing.
The rest of it varies. Sometimes it's something in the direction, sometimes the dialog, occasionally the acting -- but often just the writing itself. A social worker travels out to some hick town on her own expense, unprepared for even a simple 'no' to her questions? OK, well, she did make a promise, so I guess this hard cut to a small boy is the movie showing us that she's justified in -- what, it's not the boy she's looking for? But just a way to segue to two men talking? Who do so standing around awkwardly, like they can't figure out what to do with their hands?
Hands have a tough time in most of this movie; we get many two-shots where two people walk around with arms dangling nervelessly. More than once, we get Chase just standing, semi-posed, while we wait for the director to shout 'cut'. You may find yourself counting up how many outfits her character brought on this investigation.
The real fault though, is that the movie doesn't seem to know how to be what it is. The pacing, shots and events feel like a horror movie without the horror. But it's not a horror (at least, not a well-made one). As a romance, it lacks chemistry or even logic. As a social commentary, it doesn't know what to say or how. So what does that leave? A travelogue? A journey into a heart of darkness? No and no. Not quite anything.
And there never was a good reason for the local guy to help the social worker on her frankly illegal quest. By the time she's standing *really close* to him in a deserted building which he *just happens to know* still has running hot water for its tubs, even though he's been away for years -- Like everything else in this movie, it felt less like plot and more like 'here's what the script says; try to make it work'.
There are exceptions: at one point, the sheriff is sitting in the town cafe talking to the owner, and a strange feeling came over me: the scene worked. The dialog was believable, the actors disappeared into their parts and the character interaction was convincing. Not an important scene, but the only one that didn't have us questioning some part of what we were seeing.
The rest of it varies. Sometimes it's something in the direction, sometimes the dialog, occasionally the acting -- but often just the writing itself. A social worker travels out to some hick town on her own expense, unprepared for even a simple 'no' to her questions? OK, well, she did make a promise, so I guess this hard cut to a small boy is the movie showing us that she's justified in -- what, it's not the boy she's looking for? But just a way to segue to two men talking? Who do so standing around awkwardly, like they can't figure out what to do with their hands?
Hands have a tough time in most of this movie; we get many two-shots where two people walk around with arms dangling nervelessly. More than once, we get Chase just standing, semi-posed, while we wait for the director to shout 'cut'. You may find yourself counting up how many outfits her character brought on this investigation.
The real fault though, is that the movie doesn't seem to know how to be what it is. The pacing, shots and events feel like a horror movie without the horror. But it's not a horror (at least, not a well-made one). As a romance, it lacks chemistry or even logic. As a social commentary, it doesn't know what to say or how. So what does that leave? A travelogue? A journey into a heart of darkness? No and no. Not quite anything.
And there never was a good reason for the local guy to help the social worker on her frankly illegal quest. By the time she's standing *really close* to him in a deserted building which he *just happens to know* still has running hot water for its tubs, even though he's been away for years -- Like everything else in this movie, it felt less like plot and more like 'here's what the script says; try to make it work'.
