Irresistible

Susan Sarandon goes "slumming" in Australia and comes up with a pretty nifty thriller, IRRESISTIBLE. She plays a mom and wife and professional artist who begins to imagine things. She hears voices after her mother dies. Doors open and close of their own accord. Family photos disappear. An elderly neighbor swears someone dressed like Sarandon has been going in and out of her house! Changing the locks doesn't appear to help, and hubby Sam Neill is less than sympathetic. The solution comes at us unexpectedly, but then the writer or director decides to take it for one more turn -- at which point I was crying, "Enough!" It comes to A LIFETIME-type conclusion. Sarandon makes the film. Without her edgy performance as the aging, distraught mother, IRRESISTIBLE would be absolutely nothing. Neil is just window dressing.

With a messy script and quite tedious pacing, this film doesn't really work. Sam Neill and Susan Sarandon do their best with desperately underwritten parts and Emily Blunt feels at times wasted in the role and at other times very miscast. The whole adds up to a waste of your time if you take the risk of watching it. You have been warned.

I was pleasantly surprised by "Irresistible", which turned out to be a deftly made thriller with just enough twists and turns to keep the viewer guessing. Some were a bit more predictable than others, and others really came from left field and will likely be the dividing point on this one, but it was a surprisingly enjoyable view. What seems to begin as a genre piece leaning heavily on the excellent 1940's films "Gaslight" really mentally becomes three different parallel story lines. The questions that stick in your mind throughout much of the film and offer those three simultaneous scenarios are due to a first rate performance by Susan Sarandon. A lesser actress would have been a complete embarrassment in this film, but her no holds barred presence builds up what could have been a little throwaway flick.

This popped up on TV tonight. The IMDB ranking was pretty low, but it had some very good actors in it, so I thought I would give it a go anyway. I really wish I had not.

The storyline was the sort of thing that has been done so many times before and always better than this. Creepy, but attractive woman stalking another and apparently has the hooks into her husband . Said creepy woman is trying to convince everyone, including the wife, she is losing her mind. I kept hoping it would get better as it went on, but if anything it got worse and even more confusing at the very end.

Susan Sarandon, Sam Neil and Emily Blunt have all made so many good films, I am sure they will all want to forget this one.

Once you start watching this film you have to see it through to the end. It draws you in with a very strange tale which twists and turns and keeps you routed to the screen. The acting from the 3 main characters is superb. Emily Blunt's performance is absolutely stunning as the suspected source of Susan Sarandon's character's concerns and Sam Neill's character's attention. No spoilers!

Watch and see. My ideal rating would be 6.5/10