State of Consciousness

I watched this late last night and very quickly found myself sucked into a story of a wrongfully convicted man (Emile Hirsch) who gets sent to a mental institution. He's injected with a sedative and then wakes up - he thinks, the next morning, but is told 18 months have passed and he's being released after being such a good patient. A lucky break right? At first Emile can't remember what happened at all during those 18 months and it bothers him greatly. And then he starts to have these wild flashbacks... and his sense of self, his ego, time and place... it all just disappears/blends together. At one point he can't even be sure if he's alive or dead.

I love this kind of stuff and found myself wholly wrapped up in this... so much so that it infected my dreams - scratch that - my nightmares. Doesn't happen to me very often, particularly not from a smaller, lower cost production like this. Knowing how it all wraps up now (I think), I'm really interested in seeing it again.

Honestly I felt that I had a duty to warn people about this film, I did the mistake of watching it for Emile Hirsch, but sadly he is no different than so many stars who agreed to do low grade movies.

I'm not gonna get into details about the story or any other element in the film, they are simply all baddddd. So in conclusion avoid at all costs and save yourself from a very painful experience.

Honestly I felt that I had a duty to warn people about this film, I did the mistake of watching it for Emile Hirsch, but sadly he is no different than so many stars who agreed to do low grade movies.

I'm not gonna get into details about the story or any other element in the film, they are simply all baddddd. So in conclusion avoid at all costs and save yourself from a very painful experience.

This is not a real review, it should be understood more as a collection of impressions on the film.

I don't understand why this kind of film always has very low ratings even when in reality they are really nice, of course this film is not perfect but it is still very good and above all it is truly entertaining without ever having drops in tension. Having said that however I want to make a small criticism on the plot that for how it was built could have been managed much better but instead it is really quite obvious and it is a shame because the film has so much potential not really well exploited. In conclusion in my opinion the film can still be exciting and therefore it is worth seeing.

I thought this movie was really good for what it is - a limited release, likely low budget affair. The plot was not the most original but the characters and scenes and most of the dialogue were very well written compared to other movies like this. I grade it a 10 with this in mind against similar movies, not some blockbuster masterpiece. The film kept my attention to the end. The only distracting part was some of the background actors, the film was filmed in Italy but the plot is in Texas, there were some obviously Italian actors trying hard to sound like Texas but you could hear the accents. Filmography wise I thought it was done very well again.

Is this a 10 all time against all competition? No, obviously, but when judged against similar competition it sure is. It felt like a normal higher budget movie (aside from the extra actors with a couple lines), and looked really nice. It flowed spectacularly so pacing was great, and the scenes/writing naturally evolved. These are things lower budget movies tend to fail on which makes them feel low budget and cheap. I'm not sure what the budget was here but I presume pretty low given the limited release and for that it stands near the top.

Only few words.

If you like the "sixth sense" genre, this is the one for you!! Cinematographically it is good but not exceptional, there are also some serious acting flaws.

However, the film is well written, it also manages to keep the attention alive and the ending, not very obvious, remains in the memory: in fact, this is precisely what we have to wait for to be able to evaluate, with detachment and objectivity, a film of this kind, because, of course, we have all already seen many times and above all in many different ways, especially in recent years, the plot rotate between reality and imagination.

Finally, I would like to point out that the performance by Emile Hirsch, the absolute protagonist, is very valid and convincing.