Devil's Path

About halfway in, I turned the settings on my surround sound speakers off for the dialogue. Without the weird and disjointed plot and script, the cinematography and music were atmospheric and tense. There were a number of scenes that were intense and claustrophobic, and coveyed a very real sense of unease, fear and suspicion.

Then I looked up the actual plot. And it was terrible. It really was a shame this movie's story brought the film down. The photography and lighting were pretty good, as was the accompanying soundtrack.

I saw with sympathy the first part. With hope, in same measure, to. But the final feeling was about an unrealistic story, saved by JD Scalzo good look and by forest, remembering other films from same genre, and proposing a sort of not very inspired chain of improvisations. And the end, expression of good intentions, works not fine exactly.

Two guys on bench, in forest. Talk, confessions, the bad men hunting them, in a small place discovering the truth about them, a lost brother and terrible childhood, a murder of past and a bizarre survive after knife hit today and , in essence, unfortunately, nothing new. The dark of few scenes is so...dark than the effort to identify the people is one of precious gifts.

Sure, good intentions. But, after final credits, some bitter taste about waste of time.

An okay little thriller that is well shot, contains some pretty decent acting, and an interesting - if not totally original - plot.

Essentially a man with severe PTSD sets off into a popular cruising area in an attempt to find out what happened to his brother. There, he meets an asthmatic player who may have had something to do with the brother's disappearance.

The movie loses steam the closer it gets to the conclusion, which requires more suspension of disbelief than I'm able to give it. But the before part is far more interesting and entertaining than the resolution. It's almost as if the writer ran out of ideas for what to do with these two men, and simply decided to abruptly end it. Either that, or entire scenes were lost.

Even so, there is still a lot to like about the movie. The cinematography is interesting, the actors are better than you might expect (and do justice to two characters who are generally unlikable), and the dialogue rises above the popcorn you're used to seeing in movies like this.

I've complained for a long time that movies with gay themes are often bad. That tend to cover the same territory over and over again (HIV, coming out, homophobia, etc). So it's nice to see a film that tries something a little different, even when it doesn't always succeed.

A well made, well acted movie about dirty little secrets and a whole lot more. Great thriller.

The action scenes after dark are so dark you can't tell who is going after whom. Might as well turn the screen off and guess what is going on by hearing just the soundtrack.