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Title: Haven (2004)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Razaaq Adoti | ... | Richie Rich | |
| Orlando Bloom | ... | Shy | |
| Agnes Bruckner | ... | Pippa Ridley | |
| Joy Bryant | ... | Sheila | |
| Bobby Cannavale | ... | Lieutenant | |
| Stephen Dillane | ... | Mr. Allen | |
| Lee Ingleby | ... | Patrick | |
| Anthony Mackie | ... | Hammer | |
| Bill Paxton | ... | Carl Ridley | |
| Victor Rasuk | ... | Fritz | |
| Zoe Saldana | ... | Andrea | |
| Robert Wisdom | ... | Mr. Sterling | |
| Sarah Carter | ... | Chanel | |
| Santiago Cabrera | ... | Gene | |
| Caroline Goodall | ... | Ms. Claire | |
In Cayman Island, the daughter of a powerful man - Andrea - and the fisherman Shy are in a deep but secret love, hidden from Andrea's parents. When Andrea's father sails in a fish-trip, they have a night of love at Andrea's home; however they sleep and are surprised by the arrival of her family in the morning. Later, Andrea's brother Hammer throws acid on the face of Shy and spends four months in prison. In Miami, the dirty businessman Carl Ridley is chased by Federal agents and escapes with his teenage daughter Pippa to Cayman Island trying to reach his lawyer Mr. Allen. Pippa meets the small time thief Fritz sleeping in her room and he invites her to go a party. Before leaving the condo, Fritz sees Carl counting lots of money. Fritz owes money to the dangerous drug dealer Richie Rich and tells him about the fortune Carl has. Along a Friday 13th night, their lives entwine in a chain of tragic events. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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First let me explain my rating-system. I consider a 5 a movie that's somewhat watchable, a 6 is already a good movie. I gave Haven a 3 because the soundtrack was good and the acting wasn't horrible. Now over to the bad stuff...
I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone. Usually in my reviews I try to say something like: 'this movie isn't recommended for people who don't like slow-developing plots' or 'it's not for people who want the plot wrapped up neatly in the end'. But I can honestly and objectively say this movie was just one of poor quality. The biggest problem is the plot itself. The storyline is multi-linear, characters are being followed and they're all supposed to be connected in one way or another through an event or multiple events. Examples of brilliant use of this method is seen in Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Crash and Magnolia. In these films the story lines have similar prominent themes and the characters are all connected physically. Every character adds more elements to the story until we have a complex web of story lines, constantly crossing paths and having effects on one another. I know this sounds confusing but watch Amores Perros and Crash and you'll know exactly what I mean. Haven makes one fruitless attempt after another to be clever until all we end up with is an unsorted mess of scenes thrown together in a wanna-be movie. That's the best way to describe Haven: it wants to be a lot of things but ends up being rubbish.
The thing that irritated me even more then the gimmick mentioned above was the chronologically scattered framework that was used. I feel like they realized the plot and characters of their attempted intelligent film were overly simple, and they tried to jazz it up with a chronologically scattered framework to fool people into thinking they're watching something clever. I heard the story was chronological at the premiere of the Toronto film festival and then they re-edited the whole film to create the flashbacks. That's not the way to write a story with a scrambled up chronology. You have to actually write the script like that (with chronology switching from the start of your story) or the storyline will be a mess. The storyline has to flow naturally, even if you use chronology like that. A prime example a brilliantly written script that uses the same technique is Memento. The technique used actually adds something to the suspense of the story.
Nope, don't waste your time on this. I usually only write IMDb reviews for films I like but this film was just too dreadful for words, I felt it was my duty to stop another human being from seeing it. I don't see why anyone should see this movie. It's certainly not to be entertained and I hardly think anyone would be enlightened after seeing a film like this.
3/10 and I'm being generous.