I watched this film expecting to be disappointed by Sakis Rouvas' inexperienced acting skills, but it turned out there were several more major flaws.
Yes, Sakis' acting was stilted and it was only too obvious that he doesn't belong in the world of movies. I think most everyone not blinded by his looks or reputation as a singer will agree that he just can't pull off such a role. However, I was surprised by how flat Martin Donovan's portrayal of the character turned out to be. Though his confused and blank expression fitted some scenes, he hardly expressed the emotion that most of the film required and left me waiting for a peak that never came.
Furthermore, the attempts of making the killer oh-so-elusive and fitting all the pieces of the puzzle together left some major holes in the plot. I won't go into details to avoid giving out spoilers, but it's safe to say I rolled my eyes one too many times at the poor explanations behind certain events.
And yet the most important and, in my opinion, obvious problem of the film was the dialogue. I can't recall ever hearing more unnatural conversations in a movie before...especially Sakis' lines sounded like nothing anyone would say in reality. There are only so many times you can address another person by his name in a conversation, so once he started using "Richard" at least once in every sentence it didn't take long before I grew sick of hearing it.
To be fair I must admit I found the ending quite appealing, in a disturbed sort of way...but the twist in the tale can't make up for all the negatives. If anything, I felt it had a lot of potential and it's a shame it wasn't the highlight of the much better film it deserved.
Overall I found Duress to be a very mediocre production, with less-than-adequate acting and horrible dialogue. It's not that it didn't keep me interested, but the unreal feeling of it had me wince more than once. I believe the word that best describes this film is "awkward".
Yes, Sakis' acting was stilted and it was only too obvious that he doesn't belong in the world of movies. I think most everyone not blinded by his looks or reputation as a singer will agree that he just can't pull off such a role. However, I was surprised by how flat Martin Donovan's portrayal of the character turned out to be. Though his confused and blank expression fitted some scenes, he hardly expressed the emotion that most of the film required and left me waiting for a peak that never came.
Furthermore, the attempts of making the killer oh-so-elusive and fitting all the pieces of the puzzle together left some major holes in the plot. I won't go into details to avoid giving out spoilers, but it's safe to say I rolled my eyes one too many times at the poor explanations behind certain events.
And yet the most important and, in my opinion, obvious problem of the film was the dialogue. I can't recall ever hearing more unnatural conversations in a movie before...especially Sakis' lines sounded like nothing anyone would say in reality. There are only so many times you can address another person by his name in a conversation, so once he started using "Richard" at least once in every sentence it didn't take long before I grew sick of hearing it.
To be fair I must admit I found the ending quite appealing, in a disturbed sort of way...but the twist in the tale can't make up for all the negatives. If anything, I felt it had a lot of potential and it's a shame it wasn't the highlight of the much better film it deserved.
Overall I found Duress to be a very mediocre production, with less-than-adequate acting and horrible dialogue. It's not that it didn't keep me interested, but the unreal feeling of it had me wince more than once. I believe the word that best describes this film is "awkward".