The Pages

An okay film for a rental on iTunes, but the biggest drawback of the film for me, besides the ho-hum story and acting, is the horrible use of a soft filter for lensing that I have no idea why it was shot that way. This type of political film does not need a softer imaging in telling the story. Had they opted for a better DP, at least it would be a bit more watchable and have less of that soapy build up.

Libby (Sumpter) is hiding a dark secret that is eating her alive. From the very first scene in the movie, we know that Rachel (Curtis) has suborned Libby into a Faustian bargain -- selling her soul to the Devil for a few moments pleasing the minions of power. As Lord Acton so eloquently told us, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men...",

Both political parties have been guilty of this kind of abuse of power -- both Bush Jr. and Obama -- betraying their oaths of office. Though it seems to mock Republicans, it could just as easily have been about Democrats.

But this story is more intimate. It crawls under the skin of its protagonist, feeling the somber burden -- wincing at the finger pointing and uncomfortable looks from others.

Both Sumpter and Curtis deliver powerful performances. Sumpter, as Libby, lets us feel the heavy regret for having participated in a lie that killed so many. Curtis, as Vice President Rachel Burke, lets us see the mental gymnastics politicians go through to justify crimes against humanity.

Out of the twelve current reviews, the ten 10/10's are all fake, and the two 1 & 2/10 are wannabe critics that have no clue how to rate a film.

I found this film flawed, yet interesting and entertaining, and better than I expected.

The acting by all cast was on point, especially J.L. Curtis. The sound/score was decent. The directing and cinematography were well done by writer/director Joe Chappelle. But his writing is were the flaws showed. The too-long 102 min length, and extremely slow pacing made this film seem over 2 hours long. Many scenes were dragged out and unnecessary imo. Joe Chappelle's resume is mainly TV's shows, so going into a full length feature film clearly was a challenge for him. Had this films pace been sped up, and the screenplay edited/cut down to 60 (TV show length) - 80 min, it would have held the audiences attention better with constant uninterrupted suspense..

The premise of this political drama/(hardly a) thriller was actually very interesting, and the flashback scenes were done well, but most of the 'entertainment value' was the last 15-20 mins. The beginning was the slowest, focusing too much on unnecessary long or irrelevant scenes.

Still, an enjoyable film on dirty underground politics. Would I recommend it? Only if you are into political films and/or have nothing better to watch. It's an honest 7/10 from me.

Honestly, the film starts out a bit confusing...Libby was a top aide to the VP and 4 years later is accepting a teaching position at a university, where we see that she is a controversial person hated by many, but we don't know why. It takes a while for the film to unravel the details in flashbacks so instead of it feeling like a mystery the viewer feels a bit lost and frustrated like we are missing out on some important info... but just hang in there. While the audience is trying to figure out what the heck Libby did that's made everyone so angry another mystery is introduced...one of the students begins stalking her. This film is definitely flawed in its presentation and I wouldn't call it a thriller, but it gets better as it goes along. I felt that the writing and pace of the movie, as well as some of the acting, were the main problems. It's a slow burn, and it had that low budget feel but the second half of this political drama/mystery pulls it all together and in the end, it was an enjoyable enough watch In My Humble Opinion! 6.5 stars

I enjoyed this movie - it was good to see Jamie lee Curtis again. Interesting story about crooked politics. It was a little slow to gear up but midway through the movie it really got moving. I wish the ending would have expanded a little bit but at least you knew pretty much what happened, Definitely one of the better movies I've seen in a while.