Am a big fan of mystery thrillers, have been for a long time and the Brits have often done them brilliantly. Love the setting, which is so beautiful and evokes a lot of nostalgia within me. Also 'Winter Ridge' had a really good idea for a story. So there were more than enough reasons to see 'Winter Ridge' regardless of its polarising critical reception, which did admittedly slightly lower moderate expectations.
Seeing 'Winter Ridge', my feelings are somewhat mixed, feelings of finding it thankfully better than had been said by several while feeling a little disappointed too. Am not going to be one of those passionately defending the film, there are faults here and quite big ones. Am also not going to be one panning the film because there are good points as well and enough to make the film watchable.
The best asset of 'Winter Ridge' is the production values. Especially the locations, which are both beautiful and atmospheric. Frequently holiday in the Devon area visiting grandparents so there was a lot of nostalgia filling up inside me. The film is stylishly shot too, lots of class on this front, and the editing is cohesive at least. The music is haunting enough, being neither too low key or too intrusive. 'Winter Ridge' also starts off unsettlingly and suspensefully, indicating a lot of promise.
On the most part the acting is better than average, with the most emotionally committed performances coming from Ian Pririe and Hannah Waddingham. The human drama elements fare much better than the mystery ones, there is some genuine heart, complex and mature themes are handled tactfully and the character relationships while not illuminating make sense and worth investing in. The characters didn't bore or annoy me at least and there are far worse cases in film, and anywhere in fact, of irritational and illogical decision making and vague motivations.
'Winter Ridge' however did disappoint in other areas. Matt Hookings doesn't really convince in the lead role, somehow he didn't seem comfortable and dramatically and emotionally he came over as rather inert. The direction is uneven, never incompetent but there are unsure and plodding moments (too many of them unfortunately).
Despite a promising start, 'Winter Ridge' quickly and too early on goes downhill. The mystery/thriller element contains few surprises, very easy to figure out and severely lacking in twists and turns to keep one guessing, and just feels too simple and like a generic mystery/thriller film on Lifetime. The pacing badly plods, so the film drags a lot and feels longer than it actually is, and it just feels bland and stiff with some daft moments too that one has to seriously refrain from laughing. The dialogue should have been much tighter and the flow doesn't feel natural, while the ending is so absurd it takes one out of the film.
Concluding, watchable but there was definitely a much better film in there somewhere. 5/10 Bethany Cox
