The Perception

Maybe Sandi Gardener should first work the jobs she signed up for, and then accept new work. Especially if her project is heavily delayed.

Stuff like this might make some people really upset.

Though the story is nothing new it had a potential but bad direction, screen play and acting ruined it completely. The movie was slow (not in a good way) and and I couldn't stop looking at the time left to finish. Just as a mystery movie lover I finished watching it just to see the ending.

Filmed well and acting overall is competent but the problem is seeing Eric Roberts in the cast list - A once good actor who has turned to the dark-side like so many others and just taking the paycheque and doing the very minimum needed to achieve it rather than the artistic integrity of his previous movies and it shows in almost all of his recent movies.

This is pretty much Jessica Fletcher Murder She Wrote with none of the wit and charm of said series. It is a very basic thriller with a couple of twists you see coming from a mile away and with poor characterization you could not care less about any of the cast.

It also seems like the Director has posted a review on here criticising one of the actresses who star in this for making the movie difficult to make and this just sums it all up.

I won't say I hated it. However, every time I tried to stream it on my computer, I found myself doing other things. And by "other things," I mean things like playing Pony Island or coding my website. For whatever reason, the film could not hold my attention.

That in itself is a little surprising. I am a writer and like movies about writers. However, the old "the writer is losing his mind in his story" schtick has been done far too many times for anyone to have anything remotely interesting to say about it. Stephen King did something of this nature in Secret Window and yes, it was done much better than in this film. Again, it wasn't horribly done. It was just too familiar a path for anything to bear a lot of watching.

I normally like to do the "sandwich method" of critiquing, opening with something good, engaging in some mild criticism, then closing with something good. My best attempt at this method, for this movie, is here:

The score was actually very good. It heightened tension when it needed to do so and, while I don't remember any particular music from the movie, it added to the atmosphere of the film. Two things that kept me from enjoying the film were the number of stereotypes that made it into both the story and the meta-story, as well as the lack of likable characters. Alcoholic writer? Check. Suicide with toaster? Check. Actress using auditions as an excuse to get out of the house? Check. After all too many of these lazy tropes, my brain "checked" out. My enjoyment of the movie was not enhanced by the characters, at all. The main character (who was too nasty to be the "protagonist," let alone the "hero") was paranoid and mean. His wife was self-absorbed. The man that the main character wanted to hire to seduce her was unsympathetic at best, slimy at worst. The only decent human being was the agent--but please, tell me how "The Perception" got on the publishing house's list so quickly? He may have been a nice man, but was he a miracle worker? Finally, the cinematography wasn't horrible. The opening sequence, presented in reverse, was a nice little hint that nothing the viewer would see was trustworthy. If the rest of the film had been as innovative, I would have scored it at least two points higher.

If I had a laptop to work or play games on and streamed the film on my desktop or a television, the film might have held my attention a bit better. As it stands, unfortunately, creating starter reindeer ponies and designing a webpage for my new puppy won the day.

The Perception (2019)

A dark thriller about a writer who is losing his mind while a series of strange events, coinciding with a book he is currently writing, take on a life of its own. This is essentially a mystery movie that will keep you guessing until the very end, complete with more than one twist thrown in to keep it interesting. A watchable film that didn't drop the ball at any time, though I was waiting for that to happen, pessimist that I am. Don't let Eric Roberts name in the cast make you not want to see it either. He plays a good part as do the other actors. It's no spectacular piece of cinematic art, but still decent enough to keep one's attention throughout. 7.5 out of 10 stars.