Don't Tell a Soul

I wasn't expecting much going in to this, the plot description seemed a bit thin but the twists in the story were really unexpected and kept me entertained throughout. It is a dark film hence not the highest rating and not usually my style but I give it an 8 for its original story and emotional rollercoaster this film provides. Well worth a watch, glad i watched it even if it was deep and one of the most original films I have watched this year. But ps don't tell a soul

Almost everyone's heard of characters you love to hate.

Problem is, not all of us love it.

The character of Matt, the older brother, made it REALLY difficult for me to enjoy most of this movie. He's such an unmitigated pile of rancid human garbage.... Every time I saw his face or heard his voice, I just thought, "Would you please just eff off and die already?" (That said, it would be a terrible sin against Fionn Whitehead to omit mention of what an excellent job he does playing this character. He's 97% as believable as he is despicable. I think the other 3% can be explained if we assume Fionn is just a generally nice guy who deep down doesn't understand people like Matt. Unfortunately they do exist. Anyway, here's hoping Fionn does more work like his brilliant performance in the Black Mirror special Bandersnatch.)

Thankfully the younger brother Joey is really the main character, so we spend more time with him than with the trashstorm that is his brother. Joey really is a good kid without any adequate role models, struggling to figure out how one goes about being a good person in a world that's mean as hell. If there's any compelling reason to watch this movie, it's the character of Joey.

The plot is relatively thin (which should be obvious; it's a movie about a boy talking to a guy down a hole) but what is there mostly works. It's only toward the end that it starts to push the limits of credibility.

Bottom line, a fair character study of a good boy in a bad world, and an effective psychodrama. Just don't expect satisfaction, and don't be surprised if Matt brings your blood to a rolling boil.

The story started out fine but quickly spirals south. The characters make very dumb decisions that no one would really do if they were under the same conditions. I just think the screen writers just didn't know what they were doing. It felt like they didn't have the character arcs and the story well laid before the cameras began rolling. They just wrote in twists for the sake of subverting expectations but without a well laid out plan.

I am also very disappointed with Mena Suvari acting performance. It was seriously bad. She was the weakest actor of the whole cast.

Anyway, to summarize this film. I would say the main idea of this film would be, "The apples don't fall far from the tree". In the end, all of the main characters were rotten. Even the younger boy, Joey.

A few twists and turns in this movie. Some good one liners that made it funny. But overall, the movie was ok.

This is a story of two brothers, the older one of whom is a homicidal maniac, who rob 10,000 that just happens to be sitting in a very vulnerable spot for some unknown reason. They are out in the woods, and the money is in a tent that is being fumigated it seems.

When they leave, they're in the middle of the woods, and for some reason a security guard appears and chases them.

This basically comes down to a "one character" in Hell story. The younger brother is surrounded by maniacs wherever he goes. The story is through his eyes, and that's fair, because he does have to make difficult decisions.

Any more would be a spoiler. Suffice to say, this is unfortunately set in what is supposed to be a real world, but it's more a Twilight Zone arena. However, if we're seeing it through the eyes of the one interesting character, then that suffices if one doesn't expect too much.

The biggest problem is that the writer sets this in Louisville, and he's obviously oblivious to Louisville. There is NOWHERE in Louisville that is this isolated. Louisville is too densely populated throughout to have an open woods arena that no one ventures into. It just cannot happen. The parks in Louisville are hardly what can be called "parks". They're crowded beyond redemption. Even the less traveled ones don't have the solitude needed for this story line. You have to go at least 20 miles outside the county to have a longshot chance for that.

Still, there are maniacs like the older brother, sadists who look for excuses to hurt others, abounding in Louisville, so that much is true.