Blank

It's pretty rare that you actually find a movie that you just have no clue where the plot is going and is really unlike any of thousands of other movies you've seen before. There were so many ways the plot could have gone in this movie, but there was no way to predict the way it really would go. Any complaint about the ending is laughably simple-minded since after the path the story followed, the ending is truly a twist that, again, nobody watching this entire movie could predict.

You can't stop watching this movie if you believe what's happening, because it's a bit unbelievable. But, if you don't believe it, that means there's some incredible conspiracy going on. And yet, the longer you watch it, the more it goes on down that path you can't believe, the more it just seems like it really will never end, like maybe the truth is something else. So, you keep going back and forth from "it's a conspiracy" to "it's an apocalyptic coincidence" to "is this all in her head???"

The poor reviews and low rating of this movie are very predictable, the way most people sadly are, and the way this movie is in no way. The handful of people who made this movie really were incredibly brave.

Most people today just want something that is predictable and entertaining, quickly rejecting anything that is not formulaic, not a remake, not a sequel in an established franchise. This movie is none of those things.

It is unique, from beginning to end.

Right, well the concept of this 2022 sci-fi thriller definitely sounded interesting enough to make me opt to sit down and watch what writer Stephen Herman and director Natalie Kennedy had to offer.

Sure, I hadn't even heard about "Blank" prior to sitting down to watch it. So I didn't know what I was in for here, aside from what I had read from the movie's synopsis.

Let me just be the first to say that "Blank" is a slow paced and monotonous movie. While the concept idea behind the storyline definitely had potential and sounded interesting enough, then the movie itself was just a bland experience. Nay, a blank experience, get it? The storyline was too slow paced and mundane to provide me with much of any entertainment.

So it was good, at least, that the acting performances by Rachel Shelley (playing Clair Rivers) and Heida Reed (playing Rita) were good enough to make the movie somewhat semi-bearable to sit through. And I did manage to sit through the movie to the end, but I wasn't impressed, nor was I particularly entertained.

For a thriller, then "Blank" was devoid of anything overly interesting, exciting or thrilling. So it was a rather bland movie experience. And if you sit down to watch "Blank" with the hopes and intentions of being in for a thrill ride, then you'll be sorely disappointed.

While I managed to endure this movie to the end, I can honestly say that I am never returning to watch it a second time.

My rating of "Blank" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

We've seen it all before. The AI traps a woman in the house thing. We saw it in The Demon Seed and Vau and a few others as well. In this version of that story they intertwine it with a story of maternal abuse and imprisonment of the the protagonist in childhood.

It's an OK film, but that's all. The acting and production values are ok but the action feels padded out and I got rather bored about halfway through.

Maybe with a bigger budget and better directing talent it could have been something instead of the bloated short story it is.

Stop reading now. Ian padding this review out because I have to write six hundred words.

This film should have been called Writer Blocked and be an episode of an anthology like Outer Limits or Twilight Zone. Then the fact that it only had two ideas the entire length would have made sense and the titles should have been funny. I have no problem with the actors, direction or production values. It was just stretched too much to fill a feature film (much like the lead character should have done).

I can't even mention details of the plot because I can't avoid spoiling those two basic premises of the story. Given that it is either one of those Covid-made films or another thing inspired by Moon, the entire cast is one actress and four supporting roles. It really is barebones.

Bottom line: it might be entertaining if you are doing something else at the same time. Otherwise it drags a little too long.

A good engrossing film spoiled by incomplete end. Although it becomes repetitive, the viewer is hooked to it just to see how it ends.

And that is it - The end never happens. The story suddenly ends leaving viewers with no answers at all for dozens of questions that are relevant and obvious for any film - How can an AI operated center stop working, and no one attends to it for one month or even more? What had happened if Claire didn't finish the story - would supplies have all been consumed and she die starving? There is bound to be some human supervisor somewhere keeping tabs on how long the supplies are going to lost and he/ she should have been worried about occupied rooms and should have come enquiring. Whether the novel get published? How was it received by readers? Did she publish it under her mother's name to make amends?

Actually, I had thought that the entire Rita's "I cannot open the door till the story is finished" thing is actually the center's method to force Claire to write up the story, to bring anxiety to her, to bring depression to her, so that she is forced to overcome her writer's block. But that was not so. The film just ended.