Sunday, October 10, 2010

At a Loss: Close Your Eyes.

I saw this a few years back and thought it was kind of scary. After sitting through it again, I think it's kind of ridiculous. Has anyone else seen this? Tell me what you thought of it, I'd love to know.

IMDB's summary (which is kind of important): While treating a policewoman for smoking, hypnotherapist Michael Strother has a telepathic vision of a young girl floating beneath the surface of a stream. The escaped victim of a ritualistic serial killer, the girl has become mute, and Michael is called upon by Scotland Yard to unlock the secrets she holds in order to catch a man who believes he has discovered the key to immortality.


? ? ? ?


I'm all for fantasy, you know that. But . . . but . . . but . . . but . . . 
Literally. I'm standing here (sitting here) at a loss. How? But, why? And How? 


I can't really talk about the filmmaking, because there wasn't any, other than a few distorted camera effects during dream sequences. I can't really talk about the story, because it's just simply so far fetched that I can't even take it seriously. Some ancient old French scholars have learned how to transplant souls using blood, a ritualistic tabernacle and a little golden head statue that clicks open with a bunch of different circular rings for brain regions? The concept is, I don't know, intriguing, but whatever method of storytelling they were going for just did not work well with an idea like this. Maybe start out with some sort of legend of these crazy French people, some history or something, ANYTHING that could give this sort of ridiculousness some validity, and religion ain't enough, brothers.


I felt like this whole film was an uncomfortable, speed-bumpy mess. The cast sometimes worked well, and sometimes fouled everything up.
Goran Visnjic (HOT!)
Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle, voice a little grating)
Miranda Otto (blond from LOTR, pretty, but marginalized character)
Fiona Shaw (gross, scary, icky).


I would say that there are three reasons to watch this film, and then only if you are absolutely bored out of your mind. The first is Goran Visnjic, there's a scene where he talks to himself in Croatian, and he's stunning. The second is all the weird little devices, folding castle model, symbols, aforementioned golden brain statue, etc. They're random but kind of interesting. The third, and probably most motivating reason to watch this is Fiona Shaw, Aunt Petunia from Harry Potter? What a disgusting nightmare! She's made up to look much older, but her scenes at the end are actually cringe-worthy, which is seriously, the best thing I can think of to say about any of this. And there were NO images of it to be found online! Boo!


I'm reading The Stephen King Companion now, and I've just reached the Playboy interview. The things he said about Kubrick kind of shocked me, but I suppose I can see how their visions wouldn't have meshed together. I may just take a walk over to the shelf and look in on the old Overlook Hotel tonight, after Dexter . . . 

1 comments:

Donald said...

I have no comment on this one.

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