The New Daughter (2009) 5.2
A single father moves his two children to rural South Carolina, only to watch his daughter exhibit increasingly strange behavior. Director:Luiso Berdejo |
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The New Daughter (2009) 5.2
A single father moves his two children to rural South Carolina, only to watch his daughter exhibit increasingly strange behavior. Director:Luiso Berdejo |
|
| Watch Trailer 0Share... |
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Kevin Costner | ... | ||
| Ivana Baquero | ... | ||
| Samantha Mathis | ... | ||
| Gattlin Griffith | ... | ||
| Erik Palladino | ... | ||
| Noah Taylor | ... | ||
| James Gammon | ... | ||
| Sandra Ellis Lafferty | ... | ||
| Margaret Anne Florence | ... | ||
| Christopher Harvey | ... | ||
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Brynn Massey | ... | |
| Martin Thompson | ... | ||
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Nevaina Graves Rhodes | ... | |
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Rob Bonz | ... | |
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James Middleton | ... | |
John James is a writer; his wife has left him. He moves with his two middle-school children to an isolated house off a dirt road in South Carolina. The property has an Indian burial mound, which fascinates his daughter, Louisa, who's entering puberty. Strange things: noises on the roof and in the woods, the cat missing, Luisa sleepwalking clutching a straw doll no one's seen before. She visits the mound often, staying late, coming home covered with mud. John's younger son, Sam, is frightened. John learns the house has a history and seeks out the previous owner. Louisa's behavior becomes more bizarre. Is there an explanation? An ant farm and a missing babysitter provide clues. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
Up to a certain point in The New Daughter, I was reminded of Dragonfly. Both are low budget Costner films about a man dealing with a family loss which has a haunting outcome. It has been a while since I saw Dragonfly. Nobody thought it was any good, but it is way better than this film. To start with the obvious, The New Daughter represents what may be Costner's most lazy performance. It seems he has no interest in the story whatsoever. After a while the Dragonfly connection starts to fade away, and the movie turns into something else, something worse unfortunately. The New Daughter is torpid, and is bogged down by too much content, and not enough suspense or intelligent dialogue.
If I am gonna give the film any credit, it would be for photography. This is a gorgeously shot film, where the nights are cold, eerie and evocative, and the safety of home is warm, glowing and golden. The best shot in the film is the last one, which barely makes up for the utter stupidity of the ending. There is much left to explain, but in the end, I don't really care.
The New Daughter, is a spooky story, which is occasionally interesting but is less so than it is sloppily executed, badly acted, and not worth your money.