Extrema - Al limite della vendetta

The plot for Descent, if it actually can be called a plot, has two noteworthy events. One near the beginning - one at the end. Together these events make up maybe 5% of the total movie time. Everything (and I mean _everything_) in between is basically the director's desperate effort to fill in the minutes. I like disturbing movies, I like dark movies and I don't get troubled by gritty scenes - but if you expect me to sit through 60 minutes of hazy/dark (literally) scenes with NO storyline you have another thing coming. Rosario Dawson, one of my favorite actresses is completely wasted here. And no, she doesn't get naked, not even in the NC-17 version, which I saw.

If you have a couple of hours to throw away and want to watch "Descent", take a nap instead - you'll probably have more interesting dreams.

For once, I finally get to see a movie that portrays the reality of the aftermath of rape. This film digs deep into the psyche of what it can feel like after being violated and humiliated by another human being. Everyone talks about the ending but the true horror of the film is the very long middle segments that explores Dawson's character true descent into depression and darkness. She just doesn't "move on". She goes from living a normal college life to exploring the dark side of pain and trauma by failing out of school, drugs, alcohol and finally revenge. This is not a pure revenge story. It's more about the thin line between being prey or being the predator. At the end of the film , Rosario's character still feels empty, she still has a void. She crosses the line to become the predator but found out that it's extremely easy to become a predator. The difficult part of life is healing. With that said, the revenge is pretty sweet. I did not see that coming at all and honestly enjoyed it from the viewers perspective but not from the perspective of reality. Excellent film.

This is not the british horror movie that also goes by the name/title Descent! It also is anything but decent - in more ways than one. And it is a movie that will not be for the faint hearted or easily offended. The beginning alone might be too much for you - and it is a theme I personally do not like see explored - even in a fictional way. Although clearly this is a message and unfortunately still a truth that exists in the world, whether we like to admit it or not.

And it also ends in a place that will be hard to stomach. But as others have stated - and whether they liked the movie or its theme and more importantly its execution (no pun intended) and the morality of it in the end: there is a lot of running time that unfortunately is not doing much. And I don't mean it literally (although that is also true), but in the sense that it seems stuck. And while that is something that could work for the theme, it does not work with the tone of the movie that is all over the place.

I really like Rosario Dawson and I think no one will dismiss her as artist and an actress - but even she can't save the movie. Good intentions (if you want to call them that) be damned - it just doesn't work ... other than for the shock factor - which to be fair is one of the main goals. In that it does succeed ... but that is only a small part of it all. And could have been told in a short movie - in a way better fashion. Because there is not enough to maintain a stable pace and have this be feature length movie.

Let's hope this review will stay - the orignal one I did somehow got deleted - I am guessing by accident. Anyhow, I understand if you feel differently - you may be more leniant in respect to what I would call a movie filled with flaws and just be intrigued by the (social) message the movie tries to deliver ... as much as it did surely shock people who watched it, it did not achieve changing the root problem it adresses ... unfortunately.

Love Rosario Dawson, think she's one of the finest actresses of the modern era.

Descent seems to be more about self-empowerment than anything else. It's the consistent undertone in everything in the film. The dialog is flat, the characters seemingly intentionally bland and one sided. The only consistency is the representation of self-empowerment in the characters and Rosario's journey from self empowerment to loss of empowerment and back again.

Pitching this as a rape classic isn't appropriate, and that's probably why so many people don't enjoy the film. The standard 'rape' audience wouldn't particularly like this film, and maybe that's the point? The film asks more questions than it answers, and it does confront it's target audience, whether they like it or not. There's a compelling relationship between the characters and the target audience and while the film doesn't slap the audience across the face with self-righteous audacity it does engage the viewer for what may or may not be, all the wrong reasons.

Descent is a good film which IMHO is severely under-rated.

I rented this on DVD and I kind of feel bad since Dawson and Lugacy are so earnest about it in the DVD comments. It's not a bad movie exactly, but it's one of those films that desperately wants to be a deep comment on human nature while not realizing that its story is practically a genre. Plus, it is a little simplistic about the issue in a lot of ways, and the characters' behavior often strains belief. I'd say its a film that you would get something out of if you don't have a lot of film/TV/literature/life behind you (to be honest, I've seen almost exactly the same story in horror comics even). Otherwise, its point has been made before and more artfully. And that gets to the big problem, which is that it really doesn't have much of cinematic interest to it besides the point. It ends up being a fairly bland movie overall that invests everything in the idea that the basic story will be shocking and compelling, and it doesn't really pay off.