Saving Zoë

A very fresh performance by two sisters and a very impressive job of make up artist who can make 26 and 23 yrs old actresses to look like 13 & 16 respectively as if they travel back and forth in Time.....the film also shows how little we know our own family and when we do it is most of the time too late

This movie takes you on a road to discovery to uncover why a teenager has died, which sounds familiar because it's the same exact plot as 13 reasons why but it replaces suicide with murder. The movie falls flat in trying to keep audiences' attention, and the graphic horrific scenes were not needed in the movie because viewers could have imagined the horrific video that was being watched by the protagonist (aka, Echo). The acting also fell flat which was a shame because it was such a dramatic film that you needed excellent acting to do justice to the script.

The story combines familiar high school/ teen themes with much more serious elements of exploitation, crime and tragedy. Director Jeffrey Hunt gets very good performances from the Marano sisters ( a twist of the movie is sisters playing sisters) with a very good supporting cast. The most interesting aspect is the narrative technique : the story is gradually revealed using diary material, imagined events, flash-backs and some clever juxtaposition of the presence of the older and the younger sister. The most impressive aspects of the movie are technical with high standards from the Director of Photography, Production Designers and Editors.

The story itself is great. Like really awesome, the acting is good and the cast is perfect. The problem comes in the editing, the pacing, the direction, the visuals and the soundtrack.

First, some shots are like very weird, confusing, sometimes is easy to say if things are happening in the past or the present or if it's something that the main character is imagining. But sometimes it's ridiculously hard, that's the problem with the editing. The pacing is so slow that sometimes it makes you feel that there's no direction at all. The direction is because this movie seems so cheap and boring sometimes. Also, it's not visually appealing, some shots are just bored and the background music, some scenes are not so powerful or entertaining because it's so quiet, there's so little music in the background or sound that's just boring.

Surprisingly excellent. Great performances that made the characters real, living people warts and all. Also a good mystery involving an ugly topic. Two thumbs up for teens up to 99.