Despair

In all honesty, this film moves very slowly. There is talent in the writing and cinematography, but the acting is very bad with the exception of Margaret who plays the old lady. I think a lot more could have come from this film with much better actors.

What I absolutely loved was the soundtrack! I was surprised to find out that this movie was written by a contemporary composer named Antonio Grandanti. Dark and evil orchestrated beautifully with moments of sadness and beauty. Minimalist instrumentation, brilliant harmonies.

The music was the main reason why I kept watching through to the end of the film. I looked online hoping to find the soundtrack to purchase but no luck. :(

Genius. Bravo, Antonio. I hope to hear more music from you!

Gio

Especially created account to review this. I live in Ukraine and don't watch film in English often. But because Hank is originally was born in Ukraine I though I'd watch it. And I like it. Now everybody is making commercial films, and I like this because it's simple and good. Reminds me of classic storytelling from artists like Tarkovsky. You have to watch it and understand. People who say it's boring must be watching too much of modern films. Cinema is not just about super heroes! Well done, Hank!

What's not to dislike?! This was one of those rare movies I stopped halfway through. Just a slow, plodding film that I'm sure will have some shocking ending, but I wasn't about to torture myself getting there. Despair is the perfect word to describe this "arty" film. No thanks!

Watched on Amazon Prime. Despair is a slow burn psychological thriller, emphasis on slow. The film moves at a snail's pace, which wouldn't be a problem if it was an interesting film, but it isn't.

Dispair follows a couple in their holiday home in the Highlands during the winter. One day the couple find a woman nearly frozen to death, but all is not as it seems as the woman seems to have sinister motives.

Story wise it's decent but the execution is fairly bad. On a technical level the film doesn't perform well. Sound is muddy and fairly poor in parts. Cinematography isn't great, interior shots are noisy and ugly to look at but exterior shots look quite nice.

Acting is poor, performances feel amateur and wooden. Editing is also bad and the soundtrack is uninteresting.

Could have been decent but sadly isn't.

Fell into the trap of assuming this may be a hidden gem because it was on a major streaking service, Amazon Prime, but wow was I mistaken.

I live in Scotland so was drawn to the location of the film. Don't be fooled by this, of the 3 main characters, none are Scottish.

The film starts with some pretty poor acting and needless introductions to pointless characters. The location and drone shots are good, but anything on the interior is borderlone excruciating to watch. The editing is poor with some almost seizure inducing cuts that serve no purpose to the narrative; if anything it only serves to tell the viewer that the interactions you are watching have been filmed in multiple takes, which must have been torture for the cast.

As many of the reviews state, this is a slow burner, but a slow burner for a dud firework. The story goes on with no real depth, the characters are boring and frustrating to watch, and the twist is so futile that it doesn't justify any of the previous 60 or 70 minutes of your wasted time.

I don't like to slate movies, but I don't recommend watching this unfortunately.