Writer James Foster and his wife are holidaying in a beautiful yet corrupt and barbaric country when they befriend another couple. On their way home from a day of picnicking James hits and kills a local farmer with the car. He is arrested and sentenced to be executed by the farmer's son. However, there is a way out of this predicament.
Reading the plot summaries of this it seemed like it was going to be a pretentious arthouse film. When I discovered that it is written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg, I was convinced that this would be a weird-for-weirdness-sake arthouse flick.
To my surprise, however, the film starts quite interestingly and engagingly and develops quite well. There are some artsy scenes, largely drugged out dream sequences, so we aren't spared that but for the most part the first 60-70% of the film is quite good.
The clone idea, its uses and abuses and its effect on James Foster was fascinating and I figured this would be the thrust of the remainder of the film. I was running over in my mind where the film could go from there and most of the possibilities were quite exciting.
However, instead of going down one of these paths Cronenberg chooses a lesser one, one that lives up to the expectation I had at the beginning of pretentious mindscrewery. Quite disappointing as the film seemed set up for a powerful, thrilling climax.
Reading the plot summaries of this it seemed like it was going to be a pretentious arthouse film. When I discovered that it is written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg, I was convinced that this would be a weird-for-weirdness-sake arthouse flick.
To my surprise, however, the film starts quite interestingly and engagingly and develops quite well. There are some artsy scenes, largely drugged out dream sequences, so we aren't spared that but for the most part the first 60-70% of the film is quite good.
The clone idea, its uses and abuses and its effect on James Foster was fascinating and I figured this would be the thrust of the remainder of the film. I was running over in my mind where the film could go from there and most of the possibilities were quite exciting.
However, instead of going down one of these paths Cronenberg chooses a lesser one, one that lives up to the expectation I had at the beginning of pretentious mindscrewery. Quite disappointing as the film seemed set up for a powerful, thrilling climax.