Haven

In Cayman Island, the daughter of a powerful man - Andrea (Zoe Saldana) - and the fisherman Shy (Orlando Bloom) are in a deep but secret love, hidden from Andrea's parents. When Andrea's father sails in a fish-trip, they have a night of love at Andrea's home; however they sleep and are surprised by the arrival of her family in the morning. Later, Andrea's brother Hammer (Anthony Mackie) throws acid on the face of Shy and spends four months in prison. In Miami, the dirty businessman Carl Ridley (Bill Paxton) is chased by Federal agents and escapes with his teenage daughter Pippa (Agnes Bruckner) to Cayman Island trying to reach his lawyer Mr. Allen (Stephen Dillane). Pippa meets the small time thief Fritz (Victor Rasuk) sleeping in her room and he invites her to go a party. Before leaving the condo, Fritz sees Carl counting lots of money. Fritz owes money to the dangerous drug dealer Richie Rich (Razaaq Adoti) and tells him about the fortune Carl has. Along a Friday 13th night, their lives entwine in a chain of tragic events.

"Haven" is an entertaining movie, with a complex non-linear screenplay with many characters that have their lives entwined. There are many credible sub-plots and considering the running time of 99 minutes, the situations and characters are very well-developed. The direction and acting are great, there are many beautiful locations but the screenplay is really top-notch. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Haven"

I saw the second screening of this film, at the Toronto Film Festival. It reminded me a little bit like the film "Traffic" with a hint of Quentin Tarantino. The movie threads together multiple story lines and shifts back and forth through time.

Bill Paxton has a great performance as a shady business man who escapes with this daughter to the Cayman Islands.

Orlando Bloom's character is the most endearing. I found I could relate to his character the most. Shy (Bloom) was the classic boy from the wrong side of the tracks, who is completely in love with the rich girl, Andrea (Zoe Saldana).

Zoe Saldana has a great performance as well. Her character goes from a sweet girl who makes a complete 180 turn to a druggie /(how to put this politically correct) very easy girl.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie. Frank E. Flowers did a really great job with his debut. The story was really intriguing and the setting was beautiful. A really well done film.

The story is not exactly impressive but correct crafted.

The slick manner to tell the story represents the basic good point of film. Reasonable acting, good job of Orlando Bloom, interracial romance and some drops of Romeo and juliet, Cayeman stories and a ball of destinies .

Difficult to define it more than an ordinary thriller but the good intentions and part of nice work of director are good reasons for not define Haven as waste of time.

Indeed, significant part of story is reduced at sketches, well constructed or, more exactly, enough for a not bad work , offering to viewer kicks to reflection, in honest - precise way.

In short, decent film.

I just got back from a holiday in Toronto where I had the pleasure of attending the film festival there. One of the films I ended up seeing was Haven, which I knew very little about beforehand. What an absolute gem of a movie it turned out to be. Similar in structure to Amores Perros, the tale unfolds from different perspectives. All actors played their parts well but there were three who deserve special mention. Victor Razuk as Fritz and Zoe Saldana as Andrea are definite names to watch in future. However, Orlando Bloom was the real genuine surprise here. I don't think I have seen a more heartbreaking performance all year. The disintegration of his character - Shy - provides much of the emotional centre of Frank E. Flowers gripping first feature length movie. He is a director who is going to be talked about a great deal in the years to come. All in all , I would have no hesitation in recommending this powerful, though somewhat dark movie, to any discerning film-goer.

I just so it on DVD now.

An OK script goes to waste on 'inspirational' camera shots which are copy-cat & sloppy. The editing is so bad, there's little point to discuss it. While some of the acting is decent, the accent of the local Caymenees is hard to understand some of the time, and harder still to believe it comes off real. Some plot-lines are meant to be connected in a clever way, but we have seen too much of this before, and some parts are so generic-made it's painful. There is no promise from this film - no new actors, nothing to carry this film even to be a has-been; it is a never-was.

Hopefully, we'll see no more work from the makers of Haven.