What Comes Around

An attemp at a shocking thriller unfortunately turns into a lengthy, dull and plain film with plenty of cliches and repetitive tropes. The story itself had a nice simple (although not original) plot twist that sadly got lost in completely ordinary unsophisticated script. I am not saying that to make a good film you need to present an extremely complicated story, but when you do have a simple tale you have to grab the viewer's attention with other elements like a solid script or engaging cinematography and production design - all of which this picture lacks. Yet the biggest downfall (out of many) of What Comes Around is its incredibly weak acting performances. The rising Grace Van Dien (Stranger Things) just could not capture the protagonists's personality believably and her portrayal felt deeply artificial and in some scenes even ridiculous.

Half of the outfits of the mother and daughter are horrendous. In one scene the mom is wearing a mechanics overalls with dress shoes. In another scene the daughter is wearing a table cloth. The daughter dresses like a shes trying out for different plays. Even the step dad is suppose to be a cop but dresses like a big dork.

The overall plot is a good idea but its filmed weird. Its like it flip flops film types. But its an easy watch. Doesnt require too much brain power to keep up. Which im not sure is a good or a bad thing. The daughter almost resembles a tubi version of scarlett johanson. And the other thing the daughter and mother dont look related.

At first I thought this was a solid,muscular acted drama about a young teenage girl finding friendship then ' love' with a much older guy on the internet and the ramifications of how the internet can foster vulnerable girls into falling with much older men.

Cue a talky , arguments about the mother finding out and the girl expressing her love for this chap- who is old enough to know better... However, it doesn't really go down that way, a twist occurs mid way through that spins the entire film around completely.

This is a short,lean drama, clearly based on a play that gives weighty themes to adult responsibilities, childhood in peril and the sins of the past. Good performances around especially Kyle Gallner- my second film this week I've seen him in after 'The Passenger'; he's turning into an actor to watch.

A thought provoking and well made drama.

A couple interesting twists, but the acting by Summer Phoenix is so so bad that there is no chance for this movie to be taken seriously. Grace Van Dien tries and plays the role well enough. Kyle Gallner shines here. With better dialogue and acting, this could have been a really successful psychological thriller. As it stands though, it's a dark and twisty Hallmark movie. I have to keep writing about this movie, so I will mention that Anna's outfit choices are interesting. Maybe this is how some teens dress these days, but I saw a lot of outfits that read professor/librarian, which felt off. And that's all I have to say about that.

This movie is one of my favorite genres, and I wanted to like it more than I did. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it enough that I don't regret spending 90 minutes watching it, but it could've been better.

Grace Van Dien did a fine job, as did Kyle Gallner. My biggest issue with this film is Summer Phoenix. The whole time she was in scene, it felt as though she was trying too hard to act, like she was in an acting class trying to convey emotion. It didn't feel natural like the others, and therefore it was incredibly distracting and at times, painful to watch. Because of this, the bond between Anna and her mother felt artificial, and it's an important part of the story. This movie definitely suffered because of her, in my opinion.

Other than that, the story was very good, well told, and it kept me tuned in. 6/10.