October Gale

Dr. Helen Matthews (Patricia Clarkson) is alone at the family cottage after the death of her husband James (Callum Keith Rennie). She finds a wounded stranger named Will (Scott Speedman). She pulls out a bullet. They're trapped as a storm approaches. Local handyman Al Tessier (Aidan Devine) arrives but Will claims that he's a killer. Tom (Tim Roth) is coming to kill Will.

There is a good tension early on between Clarkson and Speedman. The audience can't trust Speedman and neither can Clarkson. The tension is broken with the kiss. The premise crumbles as Clarkson gives away her trust too quickly. It's impossible to know the truth at that point and the movie stumbles. These are great actors but they can't act their way out of this muddled writing. Filmmaker Ruba Nadda seems to have recently fallen back on TV directing. The directing is fine if unspectacular but the writing has issues.

Some movies are just tough to sit through. 'October Gale' is one of them. You really need the patience of a saint to get through it. Director/writer Ruba Nadda creates scene after scene of absolute nothingness that the audience is expected to sit through and hope whatever's coming is worth the wait. It's not. The premise seemed interesting enough and with a different script could have made for a really exciting, interesting movie. Instead we are left with this.

Even a late cameo from the always great Tim Roth isn't enough to save things. You could tell Nadda had banked a lot on this performance by Roth being the Savior of his film but when you give his scene a moments thought you realise just how irrational and senseless the whole thing is. Patricia Clarkson in the lead role gives a real snoozefest of a performance and Scott Speedman never really gets out of first gear either. He seems as bored by the script as the audience will be. I don't think Nadda ever really settled on what he wanted the film to be. One second the characters are falling in love, the next they're fighting for their life, the next they're discussing the meaning of life. There's a lot going on here but sadly none of it's good.

I was wondering why this movie with a such a good cast like Patricia Clarkson, Scott Speedman and Tim Roth managed to have a mere 5.1/10 (current rating when writing this review)

But when I started watching it, it started to make sense

In the first half hardly nothing of substance happens and there are plenty of everyday scenes of Patricia Clarkson reading a book or remembering a romantic moment with her husband or fixing with the wood- pile for the fireplace and stuff like that with very little dialogue as she's by herself in the beginning

Tim Roth doesn't show up until the last 20 minutes, he's supposed to be menacing but comes off as bored

The plot itself also doesn't make a lot of sense to me, it's extremely simple really but the characters relations to one each other are daftly written, and it's boring, extremely slow and could have easily been cut down 30 minutes and you wouldn't have missed anything

Greetings again from the darkness. Writer/Director Ruba Nadda likes to explore human nature and unexpected romantic attraction. She did this in Cairo Time (2009) and does so again here in this excruciatingly slow-moving "thriller" with an interesting beginning, muddled middle, and a final act that reminds of wet fireworks … a dud. On the bright side, actress-extraordinaire Patricia Clarkson never allows us to lose interest.

I've often written of my enjoyment of slow-burns and slow-builds for thrillers, and the best manage to generate a sense of caring from the viewers as they move towards the climax. Unfortunately, this one offers little more than an intriguing premise that places one ridiculous development on top of the next.

Patricia Clarkson plays a doctor whose beloved husband has recently passed away and she heads to their lake cottage for some peace and quiet. Not long after, an injured Scott Speedman shows up in her living room. Being a doctor, she performs bullet-removal surgery with needle-nosed pliers, and then of course, finds herself attracted to the young gunshot victim who is being hunted by the father of a guy Speedman killed.

We know the showdown is coming, but it seems to take forever to arrive, and then is pretty anti-climactic despite the presence of Tim Roth as the revenge-seeking father. The romantic attraction is pretty far-fetched and plays like a Nicolas Sparks story, or even a 1990's Tom Berenger or Ashley Judd thriller.

The focus on death could have gone much deeper, psychologically speaking, and there is a brief scene where Roth tells Speedman "You always think there's going to be more time" that leads us to believe things are going to get really interesting. Instead more attention is given to the unlikely romance and the kinda hokey manhunt. Fortunately, the cinematography around beautiful Georgian Bay helps offset the story and the manipulative score, and of course watching Patricia Clarkson and Tim Roth work is always somewhat satisfying.

Small indie thriller that doesn't quite thrill. patricia clarkson is quite good, but the script is lacking.