The Apology

The Apology is a cheap movie and by that I don't mean just the budget. Sure it is a low budget movie but there are good low budget movies, unfortunately this isn't one of them. The story is very predictable, not well written in my opinion and the execution was just average. The acting wasn't that great either. Linus Roache, I can't say I'm a big fan of his performance, found it a bit bland and not convincing at all. As for Anna Gunn it was just average as well. Never been a big fan of her either. The Apology is the kind of movie I will forget everything about it by tomorrow and that's a good thing.

This is a script which seems to have just gone ahead and filmed the second draft.

Anna Gunn; she's good. She's much more thank Skyler White. Jeneane Garafalo is always worthy of a watch - she's completely wasted here. Linus Roache does a great job playing both sleazy and urbane. That's pretty much been his whole career.

But the dialogue- ugh- way too much exposition and it was all delivered so awkwardly. The writer/director just didn't seem to believe the audience could fill in blanks using context or other means.

Perhaps that was something the producers insisted on?? But, audiences are not stupid (for the most part), and we can gather clues ourselves.

If you're looking for a good single-setting drama, there are far worse out there.

The Apology is a dark thriller just released on Shudder starring Anna Gunn & Linus Roache. It has a promising opening and a good tense 30 minutes but ultimately loses itself in the third act.

The film is fine but doesn't really offer much in the way of surprises and the subject matter just kind of plods along. By the end, i was just pretty bored.

Janeane Garofalo improves any movie she's in and has made a career of stealing the movies with the limited screen time she gets. Here, Garofalo doesn't really do much and it's a shame she's wasted so badly.

For a movie of it's kind, The Apology goes nowhere and really, there isn't much point watching. A quick plot summary will tell you all that happens and it never veers from the course. Disappointing.

This is not a Shudder horror movie, but it is excellent drama by first-class actors around a horrifying subject.

It reminded my husband and me a little of when we first started watching David Mamet's movies. At first, you're a little taken aback, because all of his characters speak in such a way that the words, not the emotional delivery, convey the power of the moment, so that when you first start watching a Mamet film, you think for a moment, "What's wrong with all these people?", and then the magic clicks, and you're entranced.

Not that Locke's style in anyway copies Mamet, it's all her own. Nevertheless, we had a similar experience with this movie. At first, we wondered why these wonderful actors seemed a little awkward, and then suddenly what was being conveyed clicked, and we were caught up.

Excellent film.

Darlene Hagen (Anna Gunn) is still struggling 20 years after the disappearance of her daughter Sally. Jack Kingsley (Linus Roache) comes by claiming car trouble. In fact, he has a dark secret to reveal. Her friend Gretchen Sullivan (Janeane Garofalo) joins the horrific gathering.

New filmmaker Alison Locke is trying to write and direct a low budget feature. I don't know how, but she got three solid actors to do this. They make this as interesting as possible. The script isn't much. It has one surprise in the first half and the second half struggles. It has no more twists or turns to keep the interest. Mostly, this concept needs a few additions to keep it going all the way to the end.