Mister John

The Irish Film Board should be ashamed for producing a film like this. Not only was the acting horrific, from the full cast, but the narrative seemed like it was thrown together in the editing room. This film is on a similar level with 'The Room'.

In the IFB's defence, I suspect that the Singapore Tourist board had a hand up their asses. The unnecessary eroticism and prostitution made me wonder whether the country is trying to adopt South East Asias sex tourism as part of their national identity.

I don't question how they got their funding, I question the choice of directors and actors. The talent in Ireland is being wasted on this drivel.

I want my money back.

Honestly, there's not much going on in this film. It's one of those movies that you aren't missing out on anything if you don't watch it at all. If you do watch it, you will mostly feel like it had wasted your time. Not sure why someone on Wikipedia called this movie a thriller.

This was the most pointless film I think I have ever watched. The cast mumble their way through the limited dialogue and a good portion of the film seems to comprise of endless pensive gazes into the near distance, endless pensive gazes into the far distance and endless pensive gazes at other members of the cast. The camera gazes pensively at the back of the casts neck, head .........and so on. A snake steals the show and out-acts the whole cast. Avoid. Did I mention it's completely pointless ?

off the top of my head, I could see snippets/influences of Claire Denis 'The Intruder', and David Lynch, in addition to the more obvious, such as Antonioni's 'The Passenger', and Bogdanovich's similarly-themed, and Singapore-set, 'Saint Jack'. (and at a stretch, I could probably make some Bergman connection, also).

So I guess you could safely conclude that I would classify it as an 'art-house movie', although, perhaps more kindly, an interesting failure than a cinephile's self-indulgence.

'The Passenger' connection might seem the most obvious, on the face of it, but I thing the Singapore connection is more relevant, and particularly to the degree that the filmmakers sought to make an exotic, even mystical connection with the notion that the waters in which the 'Mister John' of the the title had drowned were attempting to claim his soul; which led to brother Jerry immersing himself in those waters with the aim, presumably, of reclaiming his brothers' soul.

I found more interesting the dreamier images set in the bar/brothel, but the filmmakers seemed too focused on domestic pregnant pauses and stares - mostly featuring Aidan Gillen's Gerry - and trivial or tedious dialogues: not so much 'sound and fury' as sound and boredom, signifying nothing.

But I will watch out for the filmmakers next work: if for no other reason than that they've been influenced by the right people.

Set in Singapore, MISTER JOHN has a straightforward plot: Gerry Devine (Aidan Gillen) travels to Singapore to find out what happen to his dead brother, the proprietor of Mister John's bar. He encounters various people including John's wife Kim (Zoe Tay), his daughter-in-law Isadora (Ashleigh Judith White), and John's best friend Lester (Michael Thomas), and while doing so discovers something about John's life, which seems to Gerry to be idyllic, unlike his own life back home in London, where he has experienced marital difficulties with wife Sarah (Molly Rose Lawlor). Despite numerous opportunities to carve out a new life, Gerry opts instead to return to London. Directors Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy create a claustrophobic world of interior and Singapore night life - a suitable backdrop for a penetrating study of Gerry's indecisive character. Tormented by memories of the past, he cannot make up his mind in the present. The camera focuses intently on his facial expressions, suggesting that he is somehow imprisoned by his nature. On the other hand we can see why he should think like that - even though John had carved out a good life for himself in Singapore, the world of seedy bars, nighttime pickups and one-night stands does not seem in any way idealistic. Modestly budgeted yet sympathetically photographed with an eye for color both in day and night sequences, MISTER JOHN is an unexpectedly haunting film.