(Review originally written at 19 July 2006)
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This movie is basically a well made thriller, that has an original concept but in the end still falls flat as a thriller, due to some poor, mostly non-linear, storytelling.
Really the main problem for me regarding this movie was its storytelling. It has a non-linear storyline, with flashbacks and such. It also tells the story two times, only from a different source. It makes the first part of the movie feel kind of redundant afterward. Sure its good for some twist but unfortunately at the same time these twists are too obvious and not quite surprising enough. And why do movie makers keep giving away parts of the ending of the movie already at the beginning? I'll never understand why they do this. It's a killer for the rest of the movie, since you already know who survived and who didn't. It completely takes most of the tension away and you know certain events have to occur in the movie to add up to the ending of it, which was already shown in the beginning. It's mostly a common thing in British movies. One they should very quickly abandon this way of storytelling in the movie business.
This movie makes the cop seem like a bunch of narrow minded morons. They could had solved the entire mystery already halfway through the movie and while watching this movie it makes you wonder why they didn't. I hate it when they make the police seem like stupid narrow minded persons, mainly because its bad for the credibility of the entire movie.
The characters are good and so are the actors that portray them. Only thing is that they used too old persons to play the youngster. I hate it when man play boy-parts. It's not credible. The only one who seemed to have the real right age at the time was Keira Knightley
I appreciate what the movie tries to succeed and it times it comes really close. For most part the atmosphere of the movie remains good and consistent. It tries to make the movie a mysterious one with lots of twist and character changes in it. However most of the twist are too obvious with as a direct result that this movie isn't the most surprising thriller around.
In the end it simply doesn't all add up. The movie remains too vague in certain areas and doesn't deliver a satisfying enough ending. It makes you wonder why this should be the ending. It seems like a silly and unlikely thing that the Thora Birch character would get away with this all, after already confessing it moments ago to Dr. Philippa Horwood. The movie leaves too many questions and improbabilities.
A movie that had way more potential and in the end comes too short of becoming a completely good, memorable and credible thriller.
6/10
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