The Broken

A scary experience and a very unsettling film. I am quite surprised of the low rating of this movie here in the IMDb database (5.5 as of June 2012). The life of radiologist Gina McVey changes forever the night she organizes a surprise birthday party for her father. The changes are very subtle at first but there is this weird feeling that something is wrong. Gina begins to have suspicions of the behavior of some of the people close to her and makes the connection that the problem may be due to a concussion she suffered in a car accident.

The reality however is more grim and we are taken by surprise from what Gina discovers in her search to clear things out. Mirrors are important in this film.

The movie can be considered to belong to the horror genre although there is no gore and the violence is only suggested, not shown explicitly. Quite an experience and I would especially recommend it if you enjoyed the old British Hammer series. My rating: 8/10.

I have yet to write a review on Sean Ellis' debut, Cashback, because it left such a strong impression on me. I consider it one of the rare 10/10 movies I have had the joy to experience and so it was with trepidation that I awaited his next one. I would lie if I said it met my lofty expectations but it turns out to be better than it is credited for. The premise is simple. Radiologist Gina MvVey believes she sees herself, someone exactly like her, driving her car on a street. From that point on, the movie is a slow-paced but suspenseful journey to find out what is going on.

There are very few jump-out-of-your-seats attempts in the movie and we are far from MTV-style editing and pacing here. The dialogs are equally restrained. A lot in this movie is implicit, from the various characters and relationships to the story unfolding. The performances here are solid but discreet. Nobody is going to wow you but you do believe those actors. Ellis may not be the best director when it comes to guiding his actors but as far as building mood and capturing great moments, he is one of the better of his generation. The Broken has a lot of static shots and slow camera work that tells a lot more than the script could, some credit goes to Angus Hudson, who had worked with Ellis on Cashback as well. A few of the shots are extremely memorable and haunting. Composer Guy Farley, who was responsible for the amazing music in Ellis' previous movie is also back. This time, the music's role is a lot more subdued but he contributes here and there and especially to the final scene.

Most negative comments I have read seem to concern the derivative nature of the story. The Broken does indeed explore a theme that has been visited before, because it is a frightening proposition. It is in fact a primal fear of human beings. That the idea has been touched upon before is thus only natural. The treatment of the idea is also a bit derivative, I must confess. That is something I am less willing to forgive and thus I subtracted one from my final score. The film has also been criticized for the lack of an explanation. This is something I completely disagree for, for many reasons. Firstly, everything you need to know about The Broken is clearly laid out. In fact, the "twist" at the end is rather predictable and even hinted at early in the movie. To have a strong denouement doesn't mean to solve the puzzles but instead to build a great ride and an ending with impact. Why or how this particular phenomenon is happening is totally irrelevant and the lack of a 3rd arc where we are bombarded with some kind of mystical Mumbo Jumbo is not only refreshing but prevents the movie from being ruined like so many movies with supernatural/mystery overtones. We know exactly what is going on with this movie, we just don't know why. Audiences have been spoon-fed some "whys" for so long on their movies that it seems some just can't live without it.

Where I have had a bit of a problem is with the director not exploring secondary characters as much as I hoped for. I sense some missed opportunities there. Clearly, Ellis was more concerned with the journey of Gina McVey and quickly set up the ensemble around her to move on with the plot but I can't help but feel this prevents the last arc from being as strong as it could have been. The last scene with her and her father, the last scene with her and her brother... those could probably have turned out better with some fleshing out of the story. There are also a few moments I felt were a bit awkward. Such as a scene where Gina tries to recover a photograph in the subway, which just doesn't feel right from a storytelling point of view.

But those are nitpicks. I have greatly enjoyed The Broken. It is suspenseful and beautiful. I demand a lot from the director of Cashback, which I consider a gem. I feel Ellis has not let me down, even though I suspect it could have been even better. This isn't a slasher movie or teen horror. It doesn't follow the growing trend of injecting humor, irony and self-derision in horror movies either. In fact, it may not even be considered a horror movie by today's standards. In tone and pacing, it is more similar to a Shyamalan or a Kiyoshi Kurosawa movie. It has a strong, haunting, primal thematic and it lets us dwell on it for the whole 90 minutes.

And it contains enough memorable scenes for us to be permeated by its mood and dwell on it long after the credits have rolled.

From the beginning this film had an eerie dark feel which I love, although the first half is quite slow and I was disappointed with the numerous musical pieces that lead me to believe something was about to happen, but did not. The story itself tells little about anything, and of course makes no sense, even the characters or the menacing force that's intruding into their lives is faceless, but I will say it has a "body snatchers" and "the astronaut's wife" feel. I understood the ending, but it still leaves one to wonder what the hell was going on. It's one of those films where you kinda want a sequel to continue the story in hopes of understanding it, but at the same time you know one is not coming, and even if one was, the characters are all pretty much used up anyway. For an independent psychological horror I loved it, but it leaves one asking for more than they should have to. Maybe that's the idea of the film. For me this film is conflicting, I originally gave it a 6 but had to bump it up.

"The Brøken" does have its moments. The atmosphere is eerie throughout. The stage design is sparse and somewhat bleak, which is fitting with the movie's general theme.

The problem is that there is too little story here. The writer/director Sean Ellis tries to solve this problem with short intercut scenes and unsettling movie. At first it works and you're intrigued, but at some point it just seems as if Ellis was beating a dead horse. It's like: "Yeah, we've seen these flashbacks, now could you PLEASE go on with the story."

And what is the story anyway? We never find out. Why is there a psychiatrist in the movie? Why are the characters introduced so long, when their relations never amount to anything?

"The Brøken" seems like an underdevelopped idea and the ending is rather predictable. It's not a complete waste of time, but in the end it's pretty much pointless.

Having read many of the comments here, I'm surprised that no one has recognized this as basically an overlong remake of a Twilight Zone episode from 1960 called "Mirror Image," starring Vera Miles. Rod Serling did a much better job of creating an effective spooky tale in 24 minutes than Sean Ellis did in 88 minutes with this tedious snooze. A short piece can be effective with a mysterious and unexplained ending, but in a feature film, there should be a bit more substance and the story should make sense. Sadly, substance and sense are two things missing from "The Broken." Yes, it has some moments, but they are not enough to justify your time. Some further observations: although this is clearly a contemporary story, not one character in the movie has a cellphone! And even though a car accident is the event that gets the story going, there is never any reference to an insurance company, to the person who was driving the other car, or to the police who would have been required to do a report. My advice: skip this bore and watch the original instead!