I thought the trailer for this looked interesting. But sometimes there's a reason why you haven't heard much about a movie.
In the case of When Strangers Appear, it was possibly because you could drive a fair-size SUV through the holes in the plot. In fact the likable leads, sassy tough-girl waitress Radha Mitchell and blow-in weakling waif Barry Watson do well to steer clear of the yawning chasms multiplying around them as the film progresses.
Watson's broke and a bit broken but it still takes him a while to awaken Mitchell's protective instincts. When a gang of bad boys turn up at the diner and prove demanding customers, does she believe the cute guy with the greasy hair who claims they're out to get him? Or is he a little unhinged, paranoid and prone to making up stories?
At first promisingly intriguing, Mitchell's dilemma holds the attention as you try to work out with her whom she can trust, if anyone. Affairs are complicated by the fact that the put-upon heroine in the one-horse town has fallen foul of the local police representative in the past so is wary of turning to him for help.
With circumstances conspiring to isolate her, your sympathies are all with the actress, who's probably wishing she'd exercised more of her character's natural suspicion when offered the part in the first place.
It's a watchable enough psychological thriller that passes the time admirably until you start to think about it a bit and ask yourself those niggling 'why' questions. You know, 'But hey, why didn't they ?' Or 'Wait a minute though, why didn't he ?' Then everything falls apart It's a shame though because, with a little extra effort, it could have been a contender.
In the case of When Strangers Appear, it was possibly because you could drive a fair-size SUV through the holes in the plot. In fact the likable leads, sassy tough-girl waitress Radha Mitchell and blow-in weakling waif Barry Watson do well to steer clear of the yawning chasms multiplying around them as the film progresses.
Watson's broke and a bit broken but it still takes him a while to awaken Mitchell's protective instincts. When a gang of bad boys turn up at the diner and prove demanding customers, does she believe the cute guy with the greasy hair who claims they're out to get him? Or is he a little unhinged, paranoid and prone to making up stories?
At first promisingly intriguing, Mitchell's dilemma holds the attention as you try to work out with her whom she can trust, if anyone. Affairs are complicated by the fact that the put-upon heroine in the one-horse town has fallen foul of the local police representative in the past so is wary of turning to him for help.
With circumstances conspiring to isolate her, your sympathies are all with the actress, who's probably wishing she'd exercised more of her character's natural suspicion when offered the part in the first place.
It's a watchable enough psychological thriller that passes the time admirably until you start to think about it a bit and ask yourself those niggling 'why' questions. You know, 'But hey, why didn't they ?' Or 'Wait a minute though, why didn't he ?' Then everything falls apart It's a shame though because, with a little extra effort, it could have been a contender.