I read all the positive praise of this movie, so I was ready for some gripping drama, and so I rent it. After 15 minutes I was so disgusted with it, I stopped it, and returned it. Here's why:
In all the "Hand that Rocks the Cradle" copycat movies I've seen, they ALL show us right away as how the characters meet. With "Poison Ivy," the movie begins with Ivy and Coop ALREADY BEING FRIENDS, or at the very least being acquainted. To me, what makes these movies terrifying, would be that you just don't know the stranger you happen to meet, bump into, or circumstances where the paths cross. Where did Ivy come from? Instead of scenarios in which we as viewers can witness, all we have are what Ivy tells us. And for the only source of who a character is and where she comes from is from what she says, we cannot trust it. From a legal standpoint, it would be considered "heresay."
And not only can we not trust what Ivy tells us, we quickly learn we cannot believe what Cooper tells us either as she lies to Ivy -- and us -- by her claim of her biological father being black, and she adopted, when that wasn't true, and the lie she told Ivy -- and us -- that she cut herself trying to commit suicide, and then told us a few moments later, that THAT wasn't true, either.
And Cooper's narrative time-jumps, almost as if she's in a hurry to tell her story, and within a few minutes of the movie we go from them speaking of wishing to be friends to Ivy moving in with the family. I'm sorry, but that transition is too sudden, too abrupt, too jolting, that we as viewers feel it's thrown in our face quickly to sort it out later.
And Cooper's parents are the weakest parents I've ever seen. They have no backbone, no real authoritative presence, almost as if they're there for convenience's sake, they have no life outside just existing there, and within those first moments of this movie, it seems Cooper's father has no job-life.
And so, for me, we have in the first 15 minutes no characters we really don't know nor trust, nor even care about. IMHO, don't waste your time with this movie. There are plenty of other good ones of this type of story.
In all the "Hand that Rocks the Cradle" copycat movies I've seen, they ALL show us right away as how the characters meet. With "Poison Ivy," the movie begins with Ivy and Coop ALREADY BEING FRIENDS, or at the very least being acquainted. To me, what makes these movies terrifying, would be that you just don't know the stranger you happen to meet, bump into, or circumstances where the paths cross. Where did Ivy come from? Instead of scenarios in which we as viewers can witness, all we have are what Ivy tells us. And for the only source of who a character is and where she comes from is from what she says, we cannot trust it. From a legal standpoint, it would be considered "heresay."
And not only can we not trust what Ivy tells us, we quickly learn we cannot believe what Cooper tells us either as she lies to Ivy -- and us -- by her claim of her biological father being black, and she adopted, when that wasn't true, and the lie she told Ivy -- and us -- that she cut herself trying to commit suicide, and then told us a few moments later, that THAT wasn't true, either.
And Cooper's narrative time-jumps, almost as if she's in a hurry to tell her story, and within a few minutes of the movie we go from them speaking of wishing to be friends to Ivy moving in with the family. I'm sorry, but that transition is too sudden, too abrupt, too jolting, that we as viewers feel it's thrown in our face quickly to sort it out later.
And Cooper's parents are the weakest parents I've ever seen. They have no backbone, no real authoritative presence, almost as if they're there for convenience's sake, they have no life outside just existing there, and within those first moments of this movie, it seems Cooper's father has no job-life.
And so, for me, we have in the first 15 minutes no characters we really don't know nor trust, nor even care about. IMHO, don't waste your time with this movie. There are plenty of other good ones of this type of story.