If you're reading this review to determine whether you should spend nearly two hours of your life watching this film, please take my word and skip it. Don't be tricked by the fact that the film's director created Amelie (with story-by credit as well). That is a brilliant film. This isn't.
If you've seen the film and think it's good, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but you're obviously blind. Here's why this is a terrible film.
SPOILERS AHEAD
1) Bad casting - Halle Berry married to Charles Dutton? Their kissing scene nearly made me puke. 2) Brilliant psychiatrist has a bizarre encounter on her way home one night and wakes up three days later accused of killing her husband. She's now possessed by a demon who it turns out is really just a girl who was raped/killed 4 years earlier (who happens to be the daughter of the top doctor working at the facility). 3) Through the ghost of this girl (who is able to cross between this world and the beyond and open jail cell doors, throw Halle around a jail, etc.), Halle discovers the truth about what really happened to her - she was possessed by the demon/girl who wanted to kill her husband for the crimes he committed against her. 4) The sheriff of the town is in cahoots with Halle's now dead husband and together they kidnapped 15 year old girls and raped them in a barn in the middle of nowhere. No reason why they did this, they just did it. 5) The sheriff of the town snuck into a solitary cell with Penelope Cruz to rape her - this after the head of the facility (Halle's husband) was killed. He reveals his tattoo to Halle but no one checks the cell and somehow he gets out. 6) The film ends with Penelope Cruz out of the insane asylum (not sure why she was ever really in there or what proof was given of her sanity once the riddle was solved). 7) Halle can now see the souls of missing kids.
I'm sorry, but I've actually just lost track of whatever it is I just wrote - it doesn't make any sense! I can't believe this movie got made. I simply can't.
Halle put in a terrible performance where screaming seemed to substitute for acting, the plot line suffered all of the ridiculousness outlined above plus about ten other glaring faults, and the filming used every cliche to try and "scare" us that I could see every moment coming around the bend.
Why am I taking the time to write a review about this? Because I hope the producer/writer/director will one day read this and feel the shame that they should for creating such crap!
If you've seen the film and think it's good, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but you're obviously blind. Here's why this is a terrible film.
SPOILERS AHEAD
1) Bad casting - Halle Berry married to Charles Dutton? Their kissing scene nearly made me puke. 2) Brilliant psychiatrist has a bizarre encounter on her way home one night and wakes up three days later accused of killing her husband. She's now possessed by a demon who it turns out is really just a girl who was raped/killed 4 years earlier (who happens to be the daughter of the top doctor working at the facility). 3) Through the ghost of this girl (who is able to cross between this world and the beyond and open jail cell doors, throw Halle around a jail, etc.), Halle discovers the truth about what really happened to her - she was possessed by the demon/girl who wanted to kill her husband for the crimes he committed against her. 4) The sheriff of the town is in cahoots with Halle's now dead husband and together they kidnapped 15 year old girls and raped them in a barn in the middle of nowhere. No reason why they did this, they just did it. 5) The sheriff of the town snuck into a solitary cell with Penelope Cruz to rape her - this after the head of the facility (Halle's husband) was killed. He reveals his tattoo to Halle but no one checks the cell and somehow he gets out. 6) The film ends with Penelope Cruz out of the insane asylum (not sure why she was ever really in there or what proof was given of her sanity once the riddle was solved). 7) Halle can now see the souls of missing kids.
I'm sorry, but I've actually just lost track of whatever it is I just wrote - it doesn't make any sense! I can't believe this movie got made. I simply can't.
Halle put in a terrible performance where screaming seemed to substitute for acting, the plot line suffered all of the ridiculousness outlined above plus about ten other glaring faults, and the filming used every cliche to try and "scare" us that I could see every moment coming around the bend.
Why am I taking the time to write a review about this? Because I hope the producer/writer/director will one day read this and feel the shame that they should for creating such crap!