Joshua

Just watched this movie after hearing good things. Maybe I'm too accustomed to watching good thrillers, but I was left disappointed. The story is relatively interesting, but far too long. The best parts for me were the flashback sequences, which I found very moving, especially with the music. I then discovered that the music has been used in other movies, such as Arrival, and was not written especially for the movie. However, I know a lot of people like this movie a lot, so if you haven't seen it, you can give it a watch. Maybe it just wasn't to my taste. This being said, if you want a good, solid, interesting thriller that has consistent things and makes you question yourself after you see it, here are some suggestions: Blade Runner The Prestige Memento Doubt Secret Window (I thought this movie was similar to Shutter Island, but half an hour shorter and done better. Also more creepy.) SPOILERS START HERE: The plot is relatively simple and derivative; however, I had figured most of it out by about halfway through and was subsequently bored for the next 40 minutes. It revolves around a man arriving on a mysterious island where everyone is crazy. Of course, if you've seen mysteries before, the first thing you suspect is that he is crazy too. But I tried to put that to one side and be surprised, as I'm always disappointed when I guess the ending of a movie too quickly. The first 45 minutes were excellent. There were some interesting themes from sanity to PTSD, plus some excellent cinematography. From there, however, it went downhill. Maybe it was a bit too obvious that he too is insane, but when you make that jump, which isn't too big of a leap to make watching a thriller, most of the story becomes unnecessary a bit pointless. For instance, when he finds the woman in the cave, I was asking myself, why do I need this? I know she's not real, so what's the point? Also, I found the whole explanation scene at the end very poor writing. It's like the director thought we are all so dumb that we needed every little thing spoon-fed to us. I mean, I don't mind a bit of exposition, but 5 minutes of Ben Kingsley politely explaining the whole movie to us was totally unnecessary for me. In the end, the movie couldn't decide whether it wanted to be an examination of PTSD or simply a thriller where the guy turns out crazy. In a world with Memento, Inception, even A Beautiful Mind, this just doesn't stand up. There are so many other movies that, in my opinion, just do it better. Any psychological thriller will always catch my eye, but this one really disappointed me.