Spectres

With the name and the description, it's easy to mistake this as being another edge-of-your-seat, thrill-ride horror movie. It's anything but. Apart from having a supernatural aspect to it, it's pretty much an after-school special sort of film. Its PG-13 rating isn't even needed. The suicide element is so brief and tame, that this could still easily be rated G (remember, G doesn't have to mean kids, it just means General Audiences). The interesting thing is that, when the credits finally rolled, I was satisfied with what I'd seen. Imagine that, a movie that doesn't go for the kill and just wants to entertain you with a decent story for an hour or two. The script is...OK, the dialogue is... acceptable, the acting is good, for the most part (this movie is rife with underrated actors that are much more talented than they've ever been given credit for). What I find interesting is that everyone comes across as real people. Not "good actors," just your regular, flawed bozos found on every street corner. When Julia Roberts or Tom Cruise are on a screen, you get drawn-in, but it's always "them." Marina Sirtis, on the other hand, makes you believe you're watching a typical house-mom type, not an actress, who's both kind and overbearing under different circumstances --just as a real person might be. There's a scene towards the end that'll have you wanting to give her a medal for realistically portraying someone in emotional agony, and not simply "oh, the script says I'm supposed to scream here." So, overall it's not a blockbuster, and it's not something you'll want to rush out and tell your friends about. Heck, some of the metaphysical/religious concepts used are so... well, let's just say I don't subscribe to them and politely leave it there, suffice to say they're a bit corny and detracting, in an amalgamated "I've read a lot of spiritual books, but don't really know a thing about it" sort of way. But, I gave this one an "8" score for one very good reason: It accomplished what it set out to do, and it did leave me happy that I'd watched it. With Hollywood pumping out multi-million dollar blockbusters with tons of FX and no story on a regular basis, how often can we really say that about a film these days?

Just came from the North American premiere, that happened at Cinequest in San Jose.

Marina Sirtis, as well as Tucker Smallwood, Linda Park, the director (Phil Leirness) and script writer (Bud Robertson) were there, and we had a nice Q&A session with them at the end.

The movie was very good - I'd say excellent if it weren't for one thing:

The actors and director basically took the script in a completely different direction than the writer wanted initially. Which is a good thing, for the most part. However the end result is that the film cannot really define itself as a thriller/ghost story (like it originally was supposed to be) nor a like anything, really. It has ingredients of thriller, but it is mostly about a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship with some details of paranormal but without taking itself too seriously.

What makes it a very good movie is basically two things: wonderful performances by an ensemble cast that was hand picked (and will definitely attract lots of sci-fi fans, with well-known Trek alumni plus Alexis Cruz from Stargate/Stargate SG-1) and the fact that the underlying plot of the mother daughter relationship IS very interesting and very well played out.

The ghost story basically comes out as a plot device. This no Six Sense, no X-Files. :-) The actors and the director didn't take the ghost story seriously and that shows. :-) But that's OK - honestly, it makes the movie more interesting and fun to see.

Anyway, they said they've found an international distributor and a national one may be in the works - as soon as they figure out how to categorize this movie. If they do find a way - go see it. Even if you're not a fan of any of the actors, their work really deserves your 90 minutes (and $9).

I was fortunate enough to get to see this film a couple weeks back at one of my favorite theaters (the Rialto in Pasadena) and the ambiance of the venue really added to my experience (the Rialto is a grand and spooky place - you can feel the ghosts that surely live there). My only wish is that more people turned out for I can only imagine how much fun it would be to see "Spectres" with a big audience.

Having read about the movie in advance, I knew it was not going to be a horror film. Still, there were several moments in the movie made me jump and based on the reaction of the rest of the audience I was not alone. Also I was surprised at how funny the movie is. It's a good thing too because if this film had taken itself - or its philosophical/spiritual ideas - too seriously, it could have been a disaster. Instead, it wears its heart on its sleeve without shoving anything down your throat. And because the filmmakers don't violate the rules they've created in this world, you walk away at the end, maybe not believing, but thinking it'd be really cool if the ideas expressed were true.

If people come to this film for any reason other than the supernatural elements, of course, they'll be coming for the cast of recognizable sci-fi veterans (so amazing to see David Hedison again - he looks FANTASTIC). It certainly is fun to see so many good actors playing against type. Still, it is the young actress who plays "Kelly" that steals the show. She IS the movie and that's no knock on the other performers, who all do really good work.

Technically, the film is somewhat of a mixed bag in that there's some choppy camera work and the music is often that of a TV Movie. Some of the effects are cool, some are barely serviceable. According to the filmmakers, the movie was shot in high definition, and it has a really unique look to it that seems to fit the mood. Also, the sound effects and design do a lot to add to the spooky and emotionally haunting atmosphere.

Still, technical flaws aside, this is clearly a modest-budgeted picture with huge ideas and an even bigger heart and as such I really hope it finds wide acclaim and success.

I can say without doubt that this it my favourite film Marina Sirtis has been in (other than the Star Trek films of course)! I loved it. Excellent film-making too! A supernatural drama is how I would define this. Laura Lee and her daughter, Kelly (Lauren Birkell), go on a summer vacation to get to know each other again, after Kelly's attempted suicide. This would be a basic premise for a family drama but a supernatural twist is added to the plot. In the moment Kelly died before being revived, her spirit became lost and mixed up with Renee's (Linda Park's character) and Kelly takes on some of Renee's traits and attracts further spiritual attention (in other words ghosts). Marina displays some of her greatest acting skills to date, in my opinion. When the psychic Will (Tucker Smallwood) and psychiatrist Dr. Halsey (Dean Haglund) realise Kelly be brought to the brink of death and be revived to regain her spirit/soul, Laura Lee gets understandably extremely emotional and has to be held by Will. Marina does a fantastic job here; devastation and helplessness are obviously not enjoyable emotions to act (see quotes below for Marina talking about this scene). At certain points in the film Laura Lee is an awful mother, not at all understanding what her daughter is going through. But this must be because she cannot cope with her daughter's attempted suicide! And she is a bit of a b*tch towards Dr. Halsey, when she says, "I'm not the one on your couch, I'm paying you to make us a happy family." But it appears that the supernatural experiences that mother and daughter go through, aid them in bonding with each other by the film's conclusion. The ending is slightly cheesy, with Laura Lee and Kelly a happy family and going off to explore the creek, but I don't have a problem with that. Kelly, Dr. Halsey, Will and all the ghosts are all roles that are cast without flaws. It's always a pleasure to see Marina in anything, Spectres is fabulous though, a perfect project for Marina, and she gets nothing but praise from me for her performance.

DVD Review: The actual film is faultless in quality, but the special features seem to be jumpy, the images jerk around and have lines on sometimes. But it's just a huge bonus to have special features, unlike Marina's other recent films on DVD, Terminal Error and Paradise Lost, which have none. It's lovely when the film company put effort in to it. This has deleted scenes, making of the film, trailers and a clip of filming where they thought the house they filmed in was haunted and something moves behind Marina. But it seems to be just a flash of light, even though the makers insist there was nothing that could produce that light! Oooh!

16 year old Kelly (Lauren Birkell, soon to be seen in "The Woods" with Bruce 'the Man' Campbell) spending her deceased father's birthday alone, since her mom (Marina Sirtis) is busy with work. After a failed suicide attempt. the mom decides that her daughter needs a change of scenery at a summer rental house. While there the mom convinces Kelly to see a psychiatrist. For the most part I liked this film, the actors all did a pretty good job, and it was fairly engrossing. The last 20 or so minutes though was a drop in quality in plot if not in quality and didn't really seem to belong in the film at all. It didn't really make me totally dismiss the film, just dampened my opinion of it somewhat.

My Grade: C+