Beneath the Leaves

I don't know why this was made. Poorly acted and bad script. Highlight is watching the cliches fly through the plot. Love Mira Sorvino. But this was just a mess.

It's not awful, but it's never entirely clear what's going on. The plot us disjointed and confusing, and it's difficult to keep track of the characters and where they fit in. The writing could have been tightened up a bit which could have made this problem go away. I don't know if the writer was attempting to clever and failed or if he was just being lazy.

What happened to Mira Sorvino? Why is she taking any role available? We may never get an answer to that but we have an answer to what rock bottom really is: this movie. Poorly written, pathetically directed, hilariously overacted, with effects that make Sci Fi Channel movies look competent, this is garbage. Three out of ten only because I feel sorry for Sorvino - she deserves better.

First of all Mira Sorvino is always going to add to any films credibility. This is not her first rodeo playing a crime fighter. I recall her starring as an ICE Agent in the 2005 TV Mini-Series, Human Trafficking, and she held her own in that dramatic film series.

Having said that Mira Sorvino is somewhat wasted in this low budget film by todays standards THRILLER. I don't know what the films director was thinking when Detective Erica Shotwell (Mira Sorvino) walked through some parts of the investigation wearing a mans hat on her head? It looked ridiculous. But I digress. Back to the plot. There is a psycho on the loose after a prison break and in a vaguely similar style to the 1996 film title, Sleepers, there is an abuser of young boys who have to find a way to survive their past horrors and then re-live those memories when this psycho breaks out of prison.

Mira Sorvinos cop partner is Detective Brian Larson, (Kristoffer Polaha) who has a bit of a drinking problem which is his cross to bare after being one of the four young boys who survived the psycho predator who held him and three other boys in his torture chamber.

The script had all the makings of a good story, as well as casting Mira Sorvino in a lead role, her father Paul Sorvino as the precincts Captain, and her husband Christopher Backus as another one of the four tortured boys living with their nightmares from their horrific childhood(s).

It's just too bad that the on screen film just wasn't so thrilling as maybe the script could have been. Therefore I give this film a ho hum 5 out of 10 IMDb rating.

Except for a very promising start sequence, where some kids does their father, this was a mediocre,mish-mash acting and full of nick-nack talking grown ups with some inner demons that destoroy the story. its something about the acting that doesnt appeal to me, they are too rough,too designated and too perfect for the roles they fill. just watching them police doing house searches, look at how they move forward, how they handle the walkie talkie and gun. have they had any professional advisory at all ?

i guess i'm wrong, but i think that this kind of flicks are made to lure the brainblasted part of the population into the vivid world of b-movies, beacause its b or c all over. the filmography starts with a tempting glow of perfection, then when the real film starts,you are strangled by the shining bright picture of hd'ish quality, with bad focusing . how could you.....? the fights and special effects are blurry with a lot of ketchup action.

do watch if you want, im sure some will feel tensed by the action, to me though,the old grumpy man its not good enough and not recommended