Big Sky

I watched this movie because I stumbled upon it and thought "why not?" and let me tell you it was SO BORING. It kind of just went on and on. The scenes were dragged out and the plot was incredibly slow. And Bella Thorne disappointed me. Had it not been stated in the movie, I might not have known that she had agoraphobia -- she was scared at all the wrong points and fine at all the wrong points. On the up side, I thought Aaron Tveit and Frank Grillo were FANTASTIC, especially Aaron Tveit. I felt like he gave his character a personality that I sympathized with when the script offered so little for him to work from, and his disorder was so believable. I must say, I was incredibly impressed with his performance. I was less impressed with the movie overall.

This film is rather confusing in the respect that a serious mental health disorder is sort of skirted over and not really addressed in an honest way. The female leads are quite interesting characters, but most of the others are a bit one dimensional and dull - and the acting isn't exactly award winning either. What seems to start as an original and interesting premise, fails to deliver as we follow an ever more bazaar set of circumstances which unfold very slowly before our eyes in what can only be described as a totally unrealistic mess. Slow, boring and at times rather confusing, this tale isn't going to be everyone's 'Cup of Tea' and if you're looking for a realistic interpretation of mental illness or the circumstances the characters find themselves in - prepare for disappointment. Personally, I had high hopes for this title and was annoyed that it missed the opportunity to deliver by a mile.

Hazel (Bella Thorne) suffers from debilitating agoraphobia. Her mother Dee (Kyra Sedgwick) takes her to a desert treatment center. She is transported in a box inside a van along with other passengers. Suddenly, the van is attacked by sibling bandits and a girl is kidnapped. In order to save her dying mother, Hazel faces her fears to find help.

Not enough happens to make this thrilling. The characters are split up. They set up something but more needs to be done with it. It climaxes with a convoluted Mexican standoff. Much of it is unreasonable but mostly, it lacks tension or thrills.

Thorne is agoraphobic. Sedgwick is her shady mom. Their trip. Is interrupted by brothers going after something forgettable. Then Thorne crawls around in the desert seeing things and meeting a weird dude. Then it ends.

The storyline is great, and had potential to be great the whole way through. Unfortunately there's more film, than there is story. For some reason someone decided to spend too much time defining the characters. All that did was create on again, off again, moments of intensity and boredom. All the same, if you're a Kara Sedgwick and/or a Bella Thome fan, this would still be worth watching on a cold rainy day when you want to curl up on the couch with a blanket and bowl of popcorn.