The Pages

Started slowly but it was worth the wait as the suspense built up. Great film.

Libby (Sumpter) is hiding a dark secret that is eating her alive. From the very first scene in the movie, we know that Rachel (Curtis) has suborned Libby into a Faustian bargain -- selling her soul to the Devil for a few moments pleasing the minions of power. As Lord Acton so eloquently told us, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men...",

Both political parties have been guilty of this kind of abuse of power -- both Bush Jr. and Obama -- betraying their oaths of office. Though it seems to mock Republicans, it could just as easily have been about Democrats.

But this story is more intimate. It crawls under the skin of its protagonist, feeling the somber burden -- wincing at the finger pointing and uncomfortable looks from others.

Both Sumpter and Curtis deliver powerful performances. Sumpter, as Libby, lets us feel the heavy regret for having participated in a lie that killed so many. Curtis, as Vice President Rachel Burke, lets us see the mental gymnastics politicians go through to justify crimes against humanity.

I was ready to switch off twenty mins in, but actually it's quite a good film. I think they could have cut it at 1h30 mins. Also the make-up got on my nerves, I mean how do you even make a black woman look washed out. At least put some mascara on her.

Honestly, the film starts out a bit confusing...Libby was a top aide to the VP and 4 years later is accepting a teaching position at a university, where we see that she is a controversial person hated by many, but we don't know why. It takes a while for the film to unravel the details in flashbacks so instead of it feeling like a mystery the viewer feels a bit lost and frustrated like we are missing out on some important info... but just hang in there. While the audience is trying to figure out what the heck Libby did that's made everyone so angry another mystery is introduced...one of the students begins stalking her. This film is definitely flawed in its presentation and I wouldn't call it a thriller, but it gets better as it goes along. I felt that the writing and pace of the movie, as well as some of the acting, were the main problems. It's a slow burn, and it had that low budget feel but the second half of this political drama/mystery pulls it all together and in the end, it was an enjoyable enough watch In My Humble Opinion! 6.5 stars

Out of the twelve current reviews, the ten 10/10's are all fake, and the two 1 & 2/10 are wannabe critics that have no clue how to rate a film.

I found this film flawed, yet interesting and entertaining, and better than I expected.

The acting by all cast was on point, especially J.L. Curtis. The sound/score was decent. The directing and cinematography were well done by writer/director Joe Chappelle. But his writing is were the flaws showed. The too-long 102 min length, and extremely slow pacing made this film seem over 2 hours long. Many scenes were dragged out and unnecessary imo. Joe Chappelle's resume is mainly TV's shows, so going into a full length feature film clearly was a challenge for him. Had this films pace been sped up, and the screenplay edited/cut down to 60 (TV show length) - 80 min, it would have held the audiences attention better with constant uninterrupted suspense..

The premise of this political drama/(hardly a) thriller was actually very interesting, and the flashback scenes were done well, but most of the 'entertainment value' was the last 15-20 mins. The beginning was the slowest, focusing too much on unnecessary long or irrelevant scenes.

Still, an enjoyable film on dirty underground politics. Would I recommend it? Only if you are into political films and/or have nothing better to watch. It's an honest 7/10 from me.