Blank

Sometimes I wish I could detect brilliance, masterpieces and complexities and whatever superlatives they use to describe their experience (assuming its not marketing only) that easy like many reviewers do these days. Blank is not bad, the production is okay, the acting good, but the idea and the story itself is nothing really new or special. We watched this kind of movie many times before, if we are interested in that kind of movies (whatever artificial intelligence makes its own decisions and so on). If you read your good share of sci-fi stories or you watch sci-fi movies on a regular basis, this won't deliver any great surprises but the creative equivalent of a solid made cheeseburger - nothing more but nothing less.

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.

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.

Claire has writer's block, is facing a deadline from the publisher, and can't finish. She decides to go to a retreat to finish her book. It is totally run by AI. Henry is her concierge, and Rita (android) is her personal servant. Everything is stocked in the way of food and wine as she requested, and the stay is for 30 days. Henry is a hologram. Then a glitch happens, and she is trapped in the unit. There are flashbacks, and she had a terrible childhood. Her mother considered herself a writer, but couldn't get any place to accept her stories. And she was locked in the house. That is the parallel, and the only way she can get out of the unit is to complete her book, and the AI decides if the book is finished, so tricks are not working. Might make a good 30 minute episode but not a full length movie.

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.