Director: Zack Whedon
Writer: Zack Whedon
Stars: Annabelle Wallis, Aaron Paul, Garret Dillahunt
Plot: When his girlfriend goes missing, David must track down her whereabouts after he realizes she’s not who she was pretending to be.
Running Time: 1 hour 52 minutes
Rotten Tomatoes Score: Critics 67% Audience 34% To be fair not a lot of critics or audiences have seen this film.
Why I watched it: Honestly I don’t know, sometimes I just randomly pick from my list on Netflix Canada. It’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Random Thoughts: Knew very little about this film, I had seen the trailer and it looked kind of bland but alright. I’m not a big Aaron Paul fan, I know everyone loved him on Breaking Bad but his film work has not been great go check out his work on Need For Speed and come back to me defending his praises. Before we get started yes director Zack Whedon is the brother of Joss.
What I liked: This is a mixed bag for my money, for a movie billing billed as a thriller it’s not that thrilling but what I did like is the relationship between Paul and Wallis, it’s mostly told in flashbacks for the first third of the film and it oddly works for me. Wallis is very good in this she’s playing a tricky role, she’s not who we and Paul think she is but maybe there’s a part of her who is that person she’s just not allowed to be it all the time. The first half of the film is played as more of a drama, a married couple in love and then the wife leaves, and the husband is left to figure out what happened. The drama and angst of a person trying to figure out how much they knew they’re partner is interesting and that part of the film works for me. Paul and Wallis have chemistry and you care about them.
What I didn’t like: Almost everything else in the film just didn’t work for me. The pacing sucks pure and simple running at 1 hour and 52 minutes just drags this story and honestly some of it is downright boring. Paul while playing off Wallis is good but once she leaves and it’s him trying to figure out what’s happened he’s boring, bland he doesn’t bring the energy he walks around like a lonely puppy no anger no edge to him at all.
When the film breaks into the thriller element is where the film goes off the rails for me, as a thriller it doesn’t work and really it makes no sense, there’s no logic to the film’s third act. It plays just off even Garret Dillahunt showing up doesn’t help the third act, he’s fine by the way but he’s barely in it by the time he does show up I had forgot he was suppose to be in the film. The thriller element feels tacked on, it doesn’t fit with the rest of the film, the tone and even the pacing seems to belong to two different films. Don’t even get me started with the ending, needless to say it’s a downer and the film didn’t earn it.
Final Thoughts: It’s not a total wash just kind of a mess of a film narrative wise, the best part of the film for me was Annabelle Wallis, I’m still waiting for Aaron Paul to prove it to me on film.
Rating: 4/10
Movie Burner Entertainment 