Light and the Sufferer (2007) User Reviews

Fascinating, with one big flaw

[Roel1973 · 6/10 · 27 August 2015]

Two brothers undertake a desperate attempt to make a change in their lives. They rob a drug dealer and make a run for it. From that moment on they are followed around by a sufferer, a cat like alien creature. In the world of Light and the Sufferer, these aliens have come to earth to stay. Nobody knows what they want, but they attach themselves to people in need. The two brothers don't know what the creature wants either. One sees it as a guardian angel, the other just as a nuisance. Can the sufferer save the two brothers when the dealer comes looking for them?

Let's get the worst out the way: the CGI effect used to create the sufferer. It's pretty bad and not very convincing. What IS convincing however, is how the main characters (and everybody else in the movie) react to these creatures. This film succeeds in making us believe in a world where these creatures are an almost everyday thing. It's an indie crime drama fused with oddball science fiction. A mixing of genres that is as bold as it is fascinating and convincing.

Furthermore, the story of the two brothers, and their troubled relationship, is very believable and involving. Not in the least because of the two excellent lead actors.

An odd but interesting sci-fi movie.

Promising Out of the Starting Gate....

[CinemaDude1 · 4/10 · 9 July 2013]

...but this horse stumbles badly long before the finish.

We have here a story and film elements that seem to be going someplace but ultimately and unfortunately, everything -- story-line, motivation, emotional direction, all are left dangling and going nowhere.

We start with characters who are quite engaging with some very good acting by the two principals and even the minor characters are ably portrayed (except Light's girlfriend and her brother who are right out of college Acting 101). That said, as the film unfolds (or rather as the hard drive spins -- this is VERY low budget) nothing solidifies; the elements simply drift apart rather than together.

The director builds a kind of Waiting-for-Godot anticipatory tension and a palpable sense of frustration that pulls us in during the first 1/3rd of the film -- the brothers trying to start a better life in California -- and he does this very well. (SPOILER ALERT, although this is revealed in the synopsis) Then we add the element of a mysterious alien creature (is it real? is it symbolic? what's its purpose? is it a figment of the brothers' imagination? and finally, who cares), then add an amateur drug/drug money heist fiasco scene and from there everything veers into an ever-spiraling, chaotic vortex from which neither the director nor the writer were able to pull themselves, the characters or the viewer out of.

The last 2/3rds of the film simply do not work into any satisfying, cohesive "power of the whole;" for all the mystery of the alien "sufferers" and guardian angels, we are left with a void of any deeper meaning than "drugs-will-mess-up-your-life." If it weren't for Paul Dano and Michael Esper's engaging performances which keep one's attention, I am quite sure I wouldn't have watched this to the end.

Problem is, with a work like this that has such initial promise, it keeps you watching only in the hopes that all will be revealed -- the It's Got To Get Better syndrome -- but instead, you are just strung along and get REALLY disappoint you when you see the credit crawl.

The Sufferer," I am afraid in this type of effort in spades...it is the audience who is the real Sufferer. If it were truly a dog from the get-go, you would have been able to just walk away early on and save 70 minutes of your life.

Slow to stopped!

[windkisseds · 1/10 · 22 June 2019]

There was potential with this film... But each scene just dragged out so long...I actually had to fast forward through each scene to get to the next. It was an interesting concept but there was no back up story to the sufferers. Nothing to identify with in the main characters. Sorry this just was not a winner for me.

The Light and sufferer is worth a rent

[clogan-1 · 7/10 · 29 August 2009]

The Light and sufferer.

This is a weird low budget drama that add a little Sci Fi on to a fairly common story in our world. I watched it because I wanted to see what else Paul Dana has done. I liked him in "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Gigantic". I think Paul is destined for the big time. I wasn't disappointed by the acting. As for the obviously Low budget CGI it worked because it is odd. I think Paul is destined for the big time.

The film moves at a reasonable pace as the characters move toward the inevitable climax. The use of the CGI Cat as a silent witness is an interesting touch and leaves the question of what we experience in the viewers head.

The Light and sufferer is worth a rent and an hour and 10 minutes to see. I would have liked to see some more of the suffers story told or rather spelled out but I guess that is part of what was supposed to be left up to the viewer.

Meditative and melancholy genre-mash, nicely tendered on a pinched budget

[EyeAskance · 13 July 2019]

LIGHT AND THE SUFFERER is a peculiar little exercise in dreamy cross-genre abstraction which centers on two young native-Manhattan brothers, one a hopeless addict, the other a more grounded, though susceptive college dropout. They mutually agree that starting a new life in California would benefit them both, but lacking the necessary funds for this move, they devise a scheme to rob a smalltime dope-pusher. The plan goes awry, however, and the brothers must lay low to avoid the dope pusher's lackeys. To complicate matters even more, they find themselves being incessantly tracked by a "sufferer"...a quadrupedal, silent creature with a humanlike head. Though these beings are confirmed to be extraterrestrial, no further exposition of their origins is given...their existence in the world seems understood, and is moreless acknowledged with offhand indifference. They are, however, regarded with some degree of disesteem, in that they habitually, albeit nonthreateningly, stalk individuals in the midst of a personal quandary or other such impasse in their lives. The motives for this behavior are argued but never fully clarified, though being "followed" is seen as a frustrating and potentially distressing ordeal which carries a rather touchy social stigma.

An earnest microbudget endeavor sourced from a story by cult writer Jonathan Lethem, it's surprisingly well appointed, and alluringly shot with an artful eye. A methodically slow-burning picture, its primary focus is more on the dilemma faced by the key characters than on the fantastical materiality of tailgating alien man-dogs. It could possibly be argued that the creatures have a figurative placement in the story, though what, exactly, they might represent is anybody's guess. I personally don't have a problem with vague narratives, but it might put-off some viewers, as will the primitive but sparingly used CGI effects.

In a nutshell, a flawed but mindfully prepared ambrosia with a pinch of hard-boiled neo-noir, a dash of sci-fi, and a sprinkling of plaintive sentiment...an oddly flavorful dish unlikely to appease all appetites.

5.5/10