Beach House

An affluent couple from Manhattan and their literary major daughter (Willa Fitzgerald) enjoy a getaway to the Hamptons when the mother invites an old flame out to their beach house, a charismatic edgy artist (Murray Bartlett). What could possibly go wrong?

"Beach House" (2018) is a slow-burn Hitchcockian drama/thriller in the mold of "Swimming Pool" (2003) mixed with elements of "Last Summer" (1969) and "Something's Gotta Give" (2003). The difference is that it's an Indie with a miniscule budget, which can be observed in the opening scene/credits. Thankfully, it scores high on the writing/acting front, which is where any flick of this genre stands or falls.

Speaking of which, the script well chronicles the social intricacies of affluent leisure augmented by the too young woman/older man element and noir-style suspense. It's a movie for those who appreciate quality drama that slowly builds rather than those who require an explosion every five minutes.

While Willa Fitzgerald looks 18, she was 26 during shooting and effective in the role. Writer/Director Jason Saltiel knows how to tastefully capture women on camera without being sleazy.

The film runs 1 hour, 27 minutes, and was shot at a beach house at the far end of Long Island in Amagansett.

GRADE: B.

With desinteressante characters, the movie try to start with fake moments of thriller and tension, but fail miserably, the plot is so shallow, I can't understand what was the the point, just the freak romance? or the mistery around the artist? anyway nothing works and in the end you just think, really? In other words it's just a wast of time.

I realize that it could have been faster, but they were building suspense. I enjoyed it. It felt slow at the beginning, and it picked up just in time.

After watching Will Fitzgerald in Mel Gibson's Desperation Road, 2023, I thought she did a great performance. So I decided to watch other of her movies including, Blood Money, 2017, Savage Salvation, 2022, and now Beach House. The movie was great with a small cast, a slow burn with certain levels of suspense and seduction in a good story, I think it needs a sequel, I hope the screenwriter has that in plans, but definitely with Willa Fitzgerald to see how she transitions from Beach House to going to Berlin. Her acting ability has lots of versatility. Like how realistic acting in her performance in Savage Salvation. I'll be watching more of her older movies and upcoming ones. She carried the movie by herself.

I believe this movie was based on a book, so it only had so much to work with (and sometimes stories are fine in to read but just don't have enough substance for a movie.) I could tell exactly what was going to happen every step of the way...when the visitor comes to the house, the camera goes right over to the college age daughter to show her interest....you know something is going to happen between the two. Anyway, the movie is slow to unfold but it finally does toward the end. No real surprises. I think they were trying to draw a parallel between the Paul character and the daughter. They weren't so different after all. That's about all I walked away with.