It's like the two writers - one depressed with grief of loss, and the other with serial-killer tendencies, each wrote a life-story screenplay, and mended them together. Either story may have barely worked on it's own, but combining both, then labeling this film as a supernatural psychological horror film and thinking the viewer can come up with their own interpretation, is just convoluted nonsense with lazy, cliched and uninspiring writing.
All this story did for this film is combine watching paint dry and watching grass grow - together it may sound interesting, but in fact, either or and especially both, is boring. Trying to say this film is a metaphor about grief and loss is a far stretch with all her husbands secret hobbies. Then trying to imply building a reverse home would solve the problem is more infantile writing than anything. This nonsense is neither a ghost story or a metaphor for grief. It's a fantasy project riddled with plot holes that failed to deliver the goods whilst trying to convince the viewer the film is smarter than the viewer, and does nothing to elevate itself above genre conventions. Rarely have I seen a film in which simply everything demands clarification.
Based on the films narrative, why not just simply go visit a witch doctor or exorcist? And if it's depression, there's a doctor and meds for that. It's all just a bunch of convoluted nonsense masking itself as an intelligent story, that ultimately wastes an outstanding performance from Rebecca Hall, as well as decent directing from Bruckner and his jump-scares, and spot-on cinematography and score. The slow pacing didn't help the longer-feeling 107 min runtime, nor did the unremarkable and disappointing ending that never really comes to fruition and left me frustrated by the end. With a better and more creative writing team, Hall's performance could've made for a truly great film. But as is, it's a generous 6/10 from me, mostly all of it going to Hall's incredible performance, albeit a waste of her talents.
All this story did for this film is combine watching paint dry and watching grass grow - together it may sound interesting, but in fact, either or and especially both, is boring. Trying to say this film is a metaphor about grief and loss is a far stretch with all her husbands secret hobbies. Then trying to imply building a reverse home would solve the problem is more infantile writing than anything. This nonsense is neither a ghost story or a metaphor for grief. It's a fantasy project riddled with plot holes that failed to deliver the goods whilst trying to convince the viewer the film is smarter than the viewer, and does nothing to elevate itself above genre conventions. Rarely have I seen a film in which simply everything demands clarification.
Based on the films narrative, why not just simply go visit a witch doctor or exorcist? And if it's depression, there's a doctor and meds for that. It's all just a bunch of convoluted nonsense masking itself as an intelligent story, that ultimately wastes an outstanding performance from Rebecca Hall, as well as decent directing from Bruckner and his jump-scares, and spot-on cinematography and score. The slow pacing didn't help the longer-feeling 107 min runtime, nor did the unremarkable and disappointing ending that never really comes to fruition and left me frustrated by the end. With a better and more creative writing team, Hall's performance could've made for a truly great film. But as is, it's a generous 6/10 from me, mostly all of it going to Hall's incredible performance, albeit a waste of her talents.