This movie made a bit of noise as a “smart” indie. For me, it was a mixed bag. Spoilers might follow.
The basic idea by the writers is not bad. Nothing earth shattering, and a fair number of plot holes and implausibilities in world building, but overall, a pretty decent idea.
Execution however, left a lot to be desired, IMHO. First the good - pretty impressive being able to keep multiple “sisters” in the same frame, and generally technically this was handled well, IMHO. The acting was passable, Glen Close of course very good, and Noomi Rapace (who played the main character and multiple “sisters”) pulled it off as far as believability at least, so kudos. I’m not a huge fan of Rapace, and her acting performace didn’t blow my socks off here either, but I have to give her the fact that she was able to convincingly play multiple characters. The story was pretty involving and the sets were reasonable on a lowish budget (apparently all shot in Romania).
But overall, this is a directing failure. Terrible and oppressively omnipresent music, especially in the beginning (Christian Wibe, the composer, should immediately stop composing). Clumsy exposition and on the nose scenes whose only function was to explain the background story. Very, very poorly done, with no subtlety at all, it felt like a chore getting through the set up. Draggy and overly long in general. Scenes were structured like something in a student film, plot threads timing always “convenient”, and as such lacking in real suspense.
A good idea, badly done. Another entry in the column of “where have all the good directors gone?”. It’s really a shame how often the director wastes actors performances, a good script idea etc. these days. I don’t know what accounts for this, considering that there is more access to films than ever before, and for anyone who is diligent it should be no problem at all to find tons of films to study and learn. Instead, we have amateur hour, no imagination, bad judgment and poor taste.
The director is Tommy Wirkola, who has 8 directing credits on IMDB, but whose only other film I’ve seen is Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013), which did not impress me much either.
2.5 stars out of 5 for me. YMMV.
The basic idea by the writers is not bad. Nothing earth shattering, and a fair number of plot holes and implausibilities in world building, but overall, a pretty decent idea.
Execution however, left a lot to be desired, IMHO. First the good - pretty impressive being able to keep multiple “sisters” in the same frame, and generally technically this was handled well, IMHO. The acting was passable, Glen Close of course very good, and Noomi Rapace (who played the main character and multiple “sisters”) pulled it off as far as believability at least, so kudos. I’m not a huge fan of Rapace, and her acting performace didn’t blow my socks off here either, but I have to give her the fact that she was able to convincingly play multiple characters. The story was pretty involving and the sets were reasonable on a lowish budget (apparently all shot in Romania).
But overall, this is a directing failure. Terrible and oppressively omnipresent music, especially in the beginning (Christian Wibe, the composer, should immediately stop composing). Clumsy exposition and on the nose scenes whose only function was to explain the background story. Very, very poorly done, with no subtlety at all, it felt like a chore getting through the set up. Draggy and overly long in general. Scenes were structured like something in a student film, plot threads timing always “convenient”, and as such lacking in real suspense.
A good idea, badly done. Another entry in the column of “where have all the good directors gone?”. It’s really a shame how often the director wastes actors performances, a good script idea etc. these days. I don’t know what accounts for this, considering that there is more access to films than ever before, and for anyone who is diligent it should be no problem at all to find tons of films to study and learn. Instead, we have amateur hour, no imagination, bad judgment and poor taste.
The director is Tommy Wirkola, who has 8 directing credits on IMDB, but whose only other film I’ve seen is Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013), which did not impress me much either.
2.5 stars out of 5 for me. YMMV.
