Darkness Falls

This had quite a low budget ($3m) and it shows. Right from the wonky opening credits to the ending that comes about an hour too late, the film smacks of amateurism.

The plot is a good idea (man's wife dies in car crash after having an affair. Husband seeks out adulterous bloke who escaped car crash and terrorises him and HIS wife), and the ending is satisfying, if a little obvious.

But, the direction and sets try to look Hitchcockian, but look like a pastiche of late-70's/early-80's tv series, Tales of the Unexpected.

US funded, but British set, this could have been as good an effort as other recent Brit-pics (see Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels). Unfortunately, it's not. Despite, good acting (especially from Ray Winstone) it looks like it was made for TV, and could have easily been fitted into one hour instead of two.

My insomnia came in handy as I watched this movie in the early hours. This is a wonderful movie. It is like watching a play, which I like, so the movie depends upon the quality of the actors. The three main actors were well-cast. The acting of Sherilyn Fenn and Ray Winstone were extraordinary.

The plot gave me chills, especially the ending. The baby was a nice touch, especially with Sally Driscoll holding her, but seeing the conniving husband get his due was the best part.

Okay, so I related to the plot personally. I'm not rich, but I did have a husband who tried to put my house up for collateral for his debts. And he was a womanizer.

This is a movie for our time. It exposes what the modern marriage relationship has become, or can become. I expect that faithless spouses will not like this film and find it unnerving. Spouses on the other side of the coin will be intrigued.

Though not overly impressed with the movie, I just wanted to add that I was the person who composed the Bank Transfer Animation towards the end of the movie. Done in PowerPoint care of a now defunct company called DataCentre. DataCentre was asked to help with the animation because Bank Transfers aren't normally that exciting. I was taken along to help with a little of the tech stuff and came up with that animation after making a few calls etc. I was just a kid, it was new to me. I like the way the movie is all shot in one place though. It's nice that there are and have been so many movies made on the Isle of Man. It's good that it's getting the exposure it deserves.

This is one of the most predictable movies you will ever see, except for the last 20 minutes or so, which is quite satisfying.

It's a "suspense" film, and the overall story is good, but the writing is horribly inept, as the viewer is relentlessly put to sleep by the tedious dialog.

It's obviously made for two types of spectators. In the movie theater, it's made for the crack head or meth head, or some abuser of drugs, because only someone on serious drugs could stay awake through this ordeal. If one can stay awake, one is rewarded by a decent non-Hollywood ending. This means the ending is meant for the people who don't abuse drugs, but the rest of the movie is meant for the "haters" who do abuse drugs.

In the home viewing, it is meant for "groups of three or more", where two people chat while one keeps up with the story and tells the others, until that one is too bored to go on, then a relay goes into place for the group. This is not uncommon in group viewing, and movie makers know this.

However, it makes for a mediocre movie.

If the dialog was better, if the writing was better, if the movie would be about an hour shorter, it would be a very good movie. The characters are well drawn enough, although the "bad guys" are totally Hollywood caricatures. The "non-bad" characters are three dimensional, however.

Not to say it was a bad movie. Just that it is impossible for a non-drug abuser to sit through this in one entire viewing, so you would be advised to switch to another station for ten minutes or so, about three times in the beginning of the movie, then back, in order to be satisfied. You'll get the picture, and you'll predict exactly what the lead character is up to, withing the first 15 minutes of the movie, in terms of the "money crime", and you'll gather enough to realize what he's up in the "morality crime" soon enough, since that drones on and on throughout the movie.

"Darkness Falls" is not the kind of movie that becomes a box-office hit, but if you're patient and give it some time, it may prove to be engrossing enough. The director does a moderately effective job of constantly twisting around our sympathies regarding the three main characters, and of showing how appearances can be deceiving and how a human monster may be hiding behind the facade of normalcy. Kudos, too, to Sherilyn Fenn, who in addition to being perhaps one of the three or four more stunningly beautiful actresses working today, shows that she has also worked on her acting, which has improved considerably. (**)