The Broken

While 'The Broken' doesn't cover any new ground, it is still very well-made, well-acted and effective. Lena Headey and the cast are flawless. The lighting, color and photography of the film are stylish and attractive. The symbolism and foreshadowing are well-handled. I'm surprised that it hasn't been better-received. It is an 'art film', which might not be to the taste of those who like gory horror flicks, but for those who like creativity and chilling subtlety it is more than satisfying.

'The Broken' is for those who like 'The Orphanage', 'Dark Water', 'House of Voices', and the original 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'.

A scary experience and a very unsettling film. I am quite surprised of the low rating of this movie here in the IMDb database (5.5 as of June 2012). The life of radiologist Gina McVey changes forever the night she organizes a surprise birthday party for her father. The changes are very subtle at first but there is this weird feeling that something is wrong. Gina begins to have suspicions of the behavior of some of the people close to her and makes the connection that the problem may be due to a concussion she suffered in a car accident.

The reality however is more grim and we are taken by surprise from what Gina discovers in her search to clear things out. Mirrors are important in this film.

The movie can be considered to belong to the horror genre although there is no gore and the violence is only suggested, not shown explicitly. Quite an experience and I would especially recommend it if you enjoyed the old British Hammer series. My rating: 8/10.

"The Brøken" does have its moments. The atmosphere is eerie throughout. The stage design is sparse and somewhat bleak, which is fitting with the movie's general theme.

The problem is that there is too little story here. The writer/director Sean Ellis tries to solve this problem with short intercut scenes and unsettling movie. At first it works and you're intrigued, but at some point it just seems as if Ellis was beating a dead horse. It's like: "Yeah, we've seen these flashbacks, now could you PLEASE go on with the story."

And what is the story anyway? We never find out. Why is there a psychiatrist in the movie? Why are the characters introduced so long, when their relations never amount to anything?

"The Brøken" seems like an underdevelopped idea and the ending is rather predictable. It's not a complete waste of time, but in the end it's pretty much pointless.

I've been reading a lot of the comments on this film and thought I should throw in my ten penneth as I think a lot of them are being too overly critical. Yes, some of the comments are justified - at times the plot does seem to have been neglected, it is slow, and yes, the conclusion doesn't really explain much. But I don't know if all these thing (except maybe the plot) are all bad.

What this film did for me was to relay an uneasy and compelling atmosphere, something which I think is lacking in most modern horror films. This was created by the slow unending shots which seemed to have annoyed a lot of people. I admit at times I was thinking 'come on, get on with it' but perhaps that was due to the discomfort I felt.

If I was to explain to somebody the premise of this movie, and what I thought it was about, I must admit that it would sound ludicrous. But sometimes good films don't need plausibility, nor do they need everything tied up in the end so the viewer can leave it behind knowing exactly what was what.

I had an emotional reaction to this film, and this is becoming more and more rare for me in modern films. Also, it is worth noting that the acting was exceptional and very understated. Richard Jenkins is becoming godlike in his abilities and he once again doesn't disappoint here.

I would recommend this to people. It is far from perfect. But for a slow-paced psychological and mysterious celluloid experience, it pushes a lot of the right buttons.

I read about this movie in a magazine and I was intrigued. A woman, who one day sees herself drive past in her own car. Well, I thought, this could be interesting...

...but it isn't. First, the title. The Broken? The Broken...what? What is broken? The...oh, wait...I get it, the title itself is "broken"! WOW, clever! Unfortunately, this is virtually the only thing going for it.

The premise is not that bad, but I think Kiefer Suderland did much better in 'Mirrors'. A cross between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Mirrors, and a rather mediocre one at that. A more suited title would be 'The Boring', since it draws out every single scene for bloody ages. Or maybe 'The Confusing' since it doesn't explain anything at all, not in the narrative nor in the story itself, only some vague idea about evil copies and somesuch, dotted with cheap scares and scenes used to death, but nothing tangible. It's just messed up.

On the other hand, the acting and the special effects are quite good, but then again, it's not a difficult role to act.

After watching the movie twice, I still feel unsatisfied, a little confused maybe, and not in the E. A. Poe or Stephen King kind of way. Do yourself a favor, and don't watch this one. Simply put, there are better thrillers out there.