A Ameaça

Settling in to bed for a movie I did my random pick and mix and was presented with The Harvest which was mistakenly advertised as a horror, I can assure you that it isn't.

Starring modern day Zod himself Michael Shannon it is a well constructed fascinating little mystery that tells the story of an ill child with his overbearing mother.

It's one of those films that I was drawn into but didn't know quite why, however was eager to find out just quite where it was going.

The pivotal reveal turns the tide of the movie, and I mean that in a good way. The story takes shape, the cast do a stellar job and this under the radar movie I'd never heard of actually succeeded in blowing me away.

I can't say much about The Harvest without ruining it, I will merely say this is a masterworks in filmmaking and though not flawless is still a highly impressive little film.

The Good:

Very well written

Performances are flawless

Perfectly paced

The Bad:

A couple of unanswered questions linger

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Michael Shannon has one facial expression, I'm starting to think it's a mask

I have watched this one a couple of times to make sure I felt about it the way I did the first time I watched it, and I do. It's a slow-building drama with a lot of quiet dialog, but that makes Samantha Morton's outbursts that much more jarring and intense. Michael Shannon is able to convey a lot of emotion with very little action, and the child actors in the film do a good job holding their own. I won't give away any plot, as to talk about any of it would lead me down the spoiler path, but if you like a good thriller with a disturbing concept, this is worth a watch (or three).

It's not a "lights off" type of movie, and I wouldn't classify it as horror, but it's a tense thriller in the vein of Fatal Attraction or The Gift. And, it's worth mentioning Samantha Morton again - she plays her role with utter abandon. You believe that she is her character and she's utterly captivating. While she does have shouting and drooling to get her point across, her subtle changes in facial expression and the scariness of her smile is awesome too.

The girl Maryann (Natasha Calis) has just moved to the house of her Grandfather (Peter Fonda) and Grandmother (Leslie Lyles) in the countryside after losing her parents. She is lonely and misses her former friends and decides to wander around the area. She finds the secluded boy Andy (Charlie Tahan), who lives alone with his mother, the surgeon Dr. Katherine Young (Samantha Morton), and his father, the nurse Richard Young (Michael Shannon), in an isolated house. They immediately befriend each other and she enters in his room through the window to play video game with him since Andy depends on a wheelchair to locomote. On the next day, Maryann visits her new friend again and Richard let her in to play with Andy. On the next day, Katherine does not allow Maryann to visit her son and she goes to the house of her grandparents to forbid Maryann to visit her son. However Maryann insists on visiting Andy when his parents are absent; out of the blue, they return and Maryann is trapped inside the house. She goes to the basement expecting to find a way out and stumbles with a dark secret. What has Maryann discovered about Andy's creepy parents?

"The Harvest" is a great low-budget thriller with top-notch performances, highlighting Samantha Morton. The immediate impression is that there is a flaw when Maryann finds the truth and does not call the police. However, if she is not able to convince her grandparents, imagine the police department of a small town. The plot becomes predictable in a certain moment after the first plot point, but keeps the tension until the very end. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Ameaça" ("The Menace")

This is a brillant film with aa good story. About family and A mother love of her child. How sometimes there more doing unthink and unforgiving thing. The writing is on point and with a brillaint cast. Charlie Tahan in this were good. Samantha Morton and Michael Shannon are brilliant in this film!!

Adventurous girl befriends a dying boy and uncovers a dark secret.

This is carefully put together and well acted by the girl and boy. The obsessive mother looked like she was heading for Kathy Bates intensity, but I think the punches were pulled in the end.

Problem I had with this was it starts as a conventional family drama and only ups the stakes halfway through, and even then it never develops a sense of menace. It's as if they thought the plot reveal alone would elevate the story beyond the Nancy Drew level.

Also the pace is pedestrian. The director gets the technicals spot on, but I guess the screenplay didn't give enough to allow the tension to mount.