Lifeline

A real puzzle of story with crisp, natural dialogue and a fantastic lead performance by Josh Stewart. Surprising at several turns. Flies by and leaves you thinking about what is real and what is not, what is in the past and what is in the present. I found myself switching perspectives and perceptions about the reality time, the state of Steven's mind, the possibility of so many unknowns.

There are beautiful sequences and while not exactly scary, there are times when the suspense if palpable and uncomfortable enough to cause some nail-biting.

It is a film I would watch again to test assumptions I made the first time round.

Brady Morrell and Brian Price have written a superb screenplay, and despite the dark themes of childhood trauma and suicide, the writers manage to convey a message of hope and human sympathy. It draws one in from the very beginning and sustains the viewers emotional engagement throughout. The acting is really excellent, while the main actor, Josh Stewart, is especially credible in the demanding role of the suicide hotline host. The supporting cast is equally up the task of maintaining the dramatic intensity throughout. Morell and Price have done a truly remarkable job in crafting a very satisfying and indeed enriching drama.

I didn't make this movie to the end. I got too bored.

The synopsis seemed good. A suicide-prevention call-center worker gets a strange call from someone who seems to know all about him. The setting puts him all alone on New Years Eve. I also like the lead actor, who starred in the much-superior "The Collector."

I thought the movie would've worked as a straight popcorn flick: he just gets a call from some deranged person or evil supernatural entity. That's the easy direction that they could (and should) have gone to make a fun flick. Instead, they go in another direction , with all sort of flashbacks to the main character's childhood. I won't spoil, but the mysterious caller represents some sort of psychological message (or something alone those lines). There's just talk and talk and talk

Again, I tuned out around the 45-min mark

3/10.

This is my life. This is the trajectory that I followed to here, and here, I am happy. And I able to help others find their way, but then, something clicks, an unforeseen connection. I'm as lost as he is because this can't be real, and I know my past. But my past is not his, and everything is changing from the simplest things to a lost ring to the scars that I never had but now do. I can't break the connection because it has found its way from one moment in time to where I am now, and now I am held hostage to the vibrations rattling everything that I know, all that I am. They don't know who I am, but the connection remains. I beg him to change his mind, correct the course of time. Maybe, I'm reaching him, but then, another click. And the walls come crashing down, but I'm still here, still holding on to the life that I know I lived. But where will his path leave me?

The movie started well, caracters study was good, the actors were decent, but then I realized the movie was dragging and not wanting to get to the the fulcral point of the narrative. When I realized the core plot only started being developed almost at the end of the run-time, I felt something was off. It ended being a run of the mill twilight zone wannabe but very stretched out. The message had good intentions, but it was written in a very forced artificial way. This could have been a much better movie, if it had gone the sci-fi route, but I guess they didn't know what they were aiming for, or maybe they did, but the execution was flawed. It has a very decent photography, and it's a shame how it ended so abruptly. It kept me hooked until the end, but the cheap ending, and some redundant micro plots, didn't do it for me. The plot holes were also lazy writing. With a bit more effort in the narrative, they could have had an Indy gem.