Donovan's Echo

Maybe even a 7/10.

Danny Glover has been in so many garbage films and series that he has become a bit of an underrated actor. In this film at least he gets to be the focus, and show us some of his ability. Also the child supporting lead is not the usual vile little snot-nosed thing, instead she's quite restrained and engaging.

But overall, this film is so 'un-demanding', when really it should be an edge-of-the seat jobby. For some reason it just fails to scare.

It's not boring, it's just ... more innocuous than it should be. We watched it late at night before work, and it made almost no emotional impression whatsoever.

All of which makes it sound like a bad film!

It's not, it's got a good little story and a couple of nice twists.

You could sum it up by "I didn't mind it."

Of course, Danny Glover does an amazing job. Kudos to Bruce Greenwood for producing the film and for his understated but essential performance. He often plays the villain but here he is the best friend a man--especially one experimenting with alcohol and deja vu--could have. The location ambiance (Canada, I assume) brings a brooding northern chill to the watcher while at the same time the sensitivity of Terry Frewer's music score wraps the whole film together with its achingly ethereal, warm, beautiful themes.

It's not a big high-concept car-chase adventure--it's an unexpected gem.

This movie definitely has something for everyone; a brilliant story containing lots of very fascinating "what-if" scenarios, built around some unique and complex concepts. The main character's struggle with his personal demons keeps you sympathizing with his desire to right his perceived wrongs from his past.

While the character portrayals by the two veteran actors (Danny Glover and Bruce Greenwood) were as exceptional as you would expect, it is the sharp-witted character of Maggie (Natasha Calis) who instantly captured my heart.

Wonderfully written and beautifully shot, the twists and turns within the movie keep you on the edge of your seat until the end.

Donovan (Danny Glover) returns to his home after 30-years of roaming (which was never really explained) due to the deaths of his wife and child in a vehicle accident. He was a nuclear physicist and blames himself for paying more attention to his work rather than his family. He was also a member of the Manhattan Project back in the day and later became obsessed with Cold Fusion. Now that he is back he has visions of the future that correspond to the date he lost his family.

Remember the saying or slogan "we are all connected" from other movies: CRASH and CLOUD ATLAS? Apparently the message didn't get through as we have this movie to drill it into us again.

Donovan sees visions of what will happen in the future and Finn (Bruce Greenwood) the local Canadian policeman and Donovan's best friend doesn't believe him; and Finn thinks Donovan is becoming dangerous. Donovan believes there is a reason he came back - at this time - and he sees things and attaches the visions to the date of the death of his wife and child. We decide Donovan is not mental (hey, that would be another story) but he cannot seem to get thru to Finn, Maggie (the 11-year old who has the same name of his daughter who died in that accident), or to Maggie's mother Sarah (Sonja Bennett). We have dialogues in our heads that would help but our dialogues are never used. Bummer.

We try to connect the dots with Donovan. However, the way these dots are presented make it difficult to follow any logic and it is here the script confuses us. Sad to say much of this story is disjointed and we are on the verge of looking for the remote to end this because we find ourselves no longer caring.

I don't believe the connection message got thru this time. In the other movies mentioned above the connections are universal; but here the connections seemed to be relegated to Donovan and the immediate cast only. The drilling was not successful in my opinion. (4/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: No.

Although this movie is a little slow moving toward the beginning, the plot is pretty deep so moving too fast would mean you would miss more of the important bits like the other reviewer did, causing him to use the word "disjointed". This movie is not at all disjointed! It has so many well placed, easily missed "bits/clues" that if you blink you just may miss something...If you don't "get it", you were not paying attention! The pieces connect from the beginning right through to the end. There are some flashback scenes throughout the movie to fill in the blanks which, like I said, if you are not giving this movie your full attention you might lose your place! All in all a good watch...It is the type of movie that makes you think (in a good way)! NOT the dopey mush brain time waster that fills so much of the screens today!