Mindscape

I need to stop reading IMDb reviews for this type of movie. I skipped all the ones who had possible spoiler alerts, but everyone else saying you had figured it out before he did, and the last 20 minutes are useless and so forth did jade me. And reading the reviews did a funny thing, I thought I knew exactly what was going on and I was wrong. So I guess reading the reviews gave me the wrong ideas. Which was actually quite funny because I kept waiting for my version to come down and it never did. So I missed the obvious because I was sure that was not the story. Okay the movie was enjoyable. It was well done. It was a fun thriller/mystery. I thought the acting was good. I liked the concept, and I think I may of really liked it better if I did not read the reviews first. It is not sci fi at all, just the idea of going into someones memories is a cool concept, but the movie was a straight up mystery/thriller. Just watch it and enjoy it with a bag of popcorn and have fun!

This is a highly suspenseful and cerebral mystery , filled with red herrings , twists and turns . This is a thrilling Spain/Britain co-production being well paced , intriguing and skillfully made . It is an agreeable if overly familiar story about a "memory detective" charged with rummaging through the repressed recall of a troubled young woman accused of a terrible crime . The producer/director Jaume Collet-Serra who made successes such as Orphan, Unknown, Non-Stop brings us another stirring picture , ¨Mindscape¨ or ¨Anna¨. Exciting and moving picture with a complex intrigue , nice character studio , suspense , a lot of killings and full of flashbacks with a peculiar spectator : the same protagonist John/Mark Strong . As its deals with John, a mind detective (Mark Strong, in his first leading role in a feature film), plays paid to enter people's memories and uncover the reality behind their alleged crimes . As John enters her mind and becomes more involved in her sometimes brutal memories , he must decide if she is indeed the victim of unspeakable trauma or a very clever and manipulative sociopath . With a combination of hand-holding and a little bit of coaxing he can enter a person's memories, whether they be formative or traumatic, and while he can't interact with them his observations reveal information that can be used later in therapy or criminal trials . Due to a traumatizing event in his past that ends up coming back to haunt him, and ultimately negatively affecting a session . But what will he make of his new assignment, the brilliant but troubled teenager Anna ? (Taissa Farmiga as Anna, as the picture is known here in the States, is called by its original title of Mindscape) .

Jorge Dorado's brain-twisting horror-thriller , from the beginning, the film keeps the audience interested, hooking you immediately with a strong start . The film contains tension , thriller , drama , mystery and plot twists , including decent suspense with tense sequences especially in its final part , in a unexpected denouement , near of the end . Decent thriller in which nothing is the way it seems , the atmosphere is already tense and the twists and turns are the best part of this movie . Hitchcock-style psychological thriller , being surprisingly realized and compellingly designed ; however this efficient production no match for a forgettable screenplay. There is something riveting about the concept of a person with the ability to get into another person's mind, with also having the ability to experience their memories , as the film is an experience, full of the thrill of a universe that involves memory detective agencies . The original as well as entertaining idea is overspread throughout the movie , but not totally satisfactory , including conventional pitfalls and the flick attempts to get you in the mood for some memory-scouring detective work . Mindscape is a suspenseful horror with a fantastic twist , though also packs some flaws and gaps . The motion picture is pretty well , although sometimes stagy and packs excessive turns ; however is entertaining for continuous suspense . The story is narrated by means of flashbacks about past and present , realizing a complex as well as interesting crossover . The film was noteworthy for casting some of the finest actors in England . Nice acting by Mark Strong as a memory detective with the ability to assist in solving crimes by getting into the minds of witnesses . Anna is played with effortless panache by one of America's best upcoming talents - "American Horror Story's" Taissa Farmiga . Very good support cast gives good acting such as Brian Cox , Albert Amman, Indira Varma , Saskia Reeves , Antonia Clarke , Richard Dillane and Noah Taylor . Sinister and mysterious atmosphere including a colorful cinematography , as it is finely photographed by cameraman Oscar Faura . Suspenseful and stirring musical score Lucas Vidal

The film was well produced by various producers ,Jaume Collet-Serra , Maria Contreras , Tom Drumm ,M.A. Faura , Mercedes Gamero ,Nathalie Marciano , Peter Safran and Juan Sola , all of them have produced a lot of successes in the new Spanish/British cinema . Being professionally directed by Jorge Dorado . The movie will appeal to suspense buffs and Mark Strong/Taissa Farmiga fans . Rating : 6 ; acceptable and passable . It's well worth watching and contains some really thrilling scenes and suspenseful images .

Memory detectives have the ability to enter their client's memories. The largest memory detective agency is Mindscape run by Sebastian (Brian Cox). John Washington (Mark Strong) is one of the best but he had a break down. He needs the money and returns for another job. Sebastian gives him the supposed easy case of gifted Anna Greene (Taissa Farmiga) who refuses to eat. Her mother Michelle (Saskia Reeves) and stepfather Robert (Richard Dillane) are one of the richest family. Judith (Indira Varma) monitors Anna 24/7. As John dives into her memories, it becomes questionable what is the real truth.

I like the overall paranoid feel. However there seems to be some easier detective work that could provide proof outside of his memory work. I keep thinking that there are missing pieces or avenues in the movie. I don't know why John is not more suspicious of Anna. The final scheme is so convoluted and specific that it's unlikely to work out exactly like that. The writing by the Holmes need a few more passes and maybe by a fresh pair of eyes. Jorge Dorado is trying to step up to the big director's chair and delivers a workmanlike effort. Taissa Farmiga is intriguing and Strong is effective. However the script is not quite right. The idea itself is not particularly new but I do like the Hitchcockian feel. The final twist is obvious before the reveal but I still like it. The movie could be much better.

Why are all the English actors doing American accents? It's really throwing me off. I feel like they needed to dub Anna's mother's voice in after editing. It's all very bizarre.

Anna, or Mindscape as the original title goes, rides heavily on the presence and acting capabilities of its two main leads, Mark Strong as John, a psychologist with mind reading abilities, and Taissa Farmiga as Anna, his young and eerily disturbed patient. The film itself revolves around the idea that certain humans have developed their latent psychic abilities to such a degree that they can read the minds of others and thus help them overcome traumas and illnesses of the mind. Yeah, it's a bit Inception-esque, but it's different enough in style and atmosphere that you won't mind.

Still, the best part about this film is Mark Strong. His quiet dignified performance holds almost all of the scenes together and his interactions with Farmiga are very interesting to witness. Farmiga's performance suffers a touch from her relative inexperience, at least compared to Strong. You can definitely tell that she's acting in the earlier scenes, but she gets better quickly and her character as a whole nails the eery wonder child trope.

Plot-wise the film is nothing special, being relatively easy to predict and offering no real twists, but it's more of a moodpiece in any case. I would have liked for the actual mindscape scenes to be a bit more creative and the story as a whole to be a bit more overreaching in scope, but those lacks only mean that the film is merely good instead of great.

Mindscape is worth a watch if you're looking for a thriller with a more thoughtful tone and lacking in excessive brutality and gore.