Dreamlike, abstract, jazzy, mysterious, non-linear storytelling, the dualitynof people and many more qualities would destribe this movie. But I think they are best summed up as lynchian.
Right from the beginning amazingly utilized camerawork, editing and sound editing pulled me in. Especially The protagonist, John, often speaks poetically.
The mystery starts right away and keeps unfolding quite steadily.
I do admit, it can feel tedious If you cant tell whats real, If the viewers trust is betrayed over and over. But Secret Friends managed to hold my interest the entire time. The trick is, that even imagined scenes add context, flesh Out the characters, progress the story. I know, seems obvious, but apparently it really isnt (im looking at you "Oculus"). Even If you might not be sure what is currently happening, you still understand the overall Story and how things match up. You just get handed more and more pieces. It will however require attention, as many things take time to connect or pay off. This attentive and intuition-driven Viewing experiences also reminded me a lot of Lynch's movies.
Alan Bates delivers a fantastic Performance, but Gina Bellmann knocks it out of the park.
I cant believe the bad ratings this has and I also cant believe how little attention this movie receives.
Only in the third act, there are a few scenes that made my interest waver a bit. There are still more pieces to the puzzle being added, when i wished the story would simply use the pieces already in play. What I mean is, that foreshadowing and a satifying Setup+Playoffs need time. And not every aspect got the time it deserved.
