This movie has a lot in common with those crazy weekends where you go off to a remote location with a group, under the supervision of a sort of modern drill sergeant, and then see if you can survive the dangers of the wild. If you do, then Monday morning you are a better person for it. At least in theory.
So it is when you enter the theatre to watch this film. No matter what your preferred "film pallet" may be, this work will test it to the max.
The story is .... odd. The opening, which has a cutesy first person narrative of the kind you expect to find in films like THE LITTLE PRINCE is ... odd. The narrative exposition, which uses a sort of undefined, almost magical, interface is ... odd.
In fact the whole film, which starts as a heart-warming tale and ends in a cross between Hitchcock and pure horror is ... odd.
I checked out the film because it is one of the few works from Alexandre Aja, a director considered a genius by his many fans and a time-waster by his many detractors. This film is not going to please either group.
This odd story of an accident-prone boy also violates many of the rules of conventional film-making and seems to go out of its way to make the viewer uncomfortable and even downright squirmy.
After all that "endurance testing" you would expect a big payoff, but all you get is a small one. A very small one.
And when it comes to payoffs, size does matter.
The brightest spots in the movie are Aaron Paul, an actor whom -- as I commented in an earlier review for the IMDb -- is becoming the closest thing modern audiences have to a Jimmy Stewart. Essentially the only person in a movie you immediately want to trust.
And the always reliable Molly Parker (Deadwood) who, like Paul, gives a viewer a place to "go to ground" during the ordeal that this film has become.
So it is when you enter the theatre to watch this film. No matter what your preferred "film pallet" may be, this work will test it to the max.
The story is .... odd. The opening, which has a cutesy first person narrative of the kind you expect to find in films like THE LITTLE PRINCE is ... odd. The narrative exposition, which uses a sort of undefined, almost magical, interface is ... odd.
In fact the whole film, which starts as a heart-warming tale and ends in a cross between Hitchcock and pure horror is ... odd.
I checked out the film because it is one of the few works from Alexandre Aja, a director considered a genius by his many fans and a time-waster by his many detractors. This film is not going to please either group.
This odd story of an accident-prone boy also violates many of the rules of conventional film-making and seems to go out of its way to make the viewer uncomfortable and even downright squirmy.
After all that "endurance testing" you would expect a big payoff, but all you get is a small one. A very small one.
And when it comes to payoffs, size does matter.
The brightest spots in the movie are Aaron Paul, an actor whom -- as I commented in an earlier review for the IMDb -- is becoming the closest thing modern audiences have to a Jimmy Stewart. Essentially the only person in a movie you immediately want to trust.
And the always reliable Molly Parker (Deadwood) who, like Paul, gives a viewer a place to "go to ground" during the ordeal that this film has become.