| Review Date: Director: Scott McGehee, David Siegel Writer: Scott McGehee, David Siegel Producers: Scott McGehee, David Siegel Actors: Tilda Swinton Goran Visnjic Jonathan Tucker |
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Yes, there’s an initial “gay” angle here, but don’t be scared away from that, because it really isn’t of much consequence to the story (I say this because I would hate for some to brush this puppy off as a “gay movie”). The bottom line here is that there’s a circumstance created under which someone believes a loved one to have killed another, and the film essentially studies the lengths to which that person is willing to go (or not go), to protect the person for whom they care so deeply. And further kudos to the filmmakers for creating another very “human” bad guy no less, in Goran Visnjic, who is initially introduced to us as a bulldog, but ultimately brushes layers of emotional granite off himself, and develops into a full-grown three-dimensional human being, to whom we can also relate. All of this happens over a period of a couple of days and you bet that I was pretty caught up in the whole thing, the whole way through. Redemption, love, blackmail, lies, family values, secrets, sexual role reversals, many themes are touched upon in this film, all of which are relevant, intriguing and well formulated into the whole. Many have brought up the name of one Alfred Hitchcock in relation to this film, and I can certainly see the correlation to his body of work.
The film sets itself up real nicely, starts tapping away at the base and at an even pace, until you’re suddenly fully engulfed in a story to which you cannot truly predict an ending. Add some solid cinematography to the mix, an Oscar-worthy performance by Tilda Swinton (I was asking the same thing…who?) and a Kirk Cameron look-alike son, and you’ve got the makings of a solid independent thriller. You certainly don’t have to be gay to watch this movie, but once done, I’m quite sure that you’ll be happy with the results (yeah, yeah…I just couldn’t help myself).