Dark Summer

Every once in a while a strange movie will come along and knock your socks off. I have always been a video store junkie looking for that odd gem that you can freak out your buddies with and I have found just such a movie. A new director named Gregory Marquette served up a tasty dish with his movie `Dark Summer'

(aka `Innocents') When I first took this home I was like `What the hell is going on..' and that feeling kept going on because this film never succumbed to the ordinary, only the extraordinary.

Jean Hughes Anglade, which any fan of `la Femme Nakita' will always

recognize, stars in this bizarre tale of lies and deception and was absolutely divine as the main protagonist Huxley. The man is a statement in

understatement. But I digress.

The film opens with an interrogation by one of the finest, solid character actor's, Keith David, interrogating Anglade's character about a series of murders and

from that point on I was hooked. Now don't get me wrong, this film is very

twisted and very very unconventional, but that is what so attracted me to the piece.

`Dark Summer', to me, is about the conflict of perception and innocence. The two antagonists, Mia Kirshner (Yummmm) and Connie Nielson, as the creepy

sisters, keep the dementia going by defying all definition. My point is the film kept fooling me (which is rare). Nothing is as it seems with this effort.

Power cameos by Frank Langella, Robert Culp, and the always excellent Keith

David, feed the twisted plot with a texture that is beyond the reach of the

Hollywood schlock machine. Anne Archer gives a bravura performance well

outside of the reach of any of the roles she has been saddled with in the past. (`Clear And Present Danger' Yuccchhhh!)

I think what really impressed me about this movie is you never know where this son of a gun is going. I do not want to give away the plot but I have rarely been fooled by plots and scripting, but this movie is the most different journey of any movie I have seen in recent history.

All in all the morality tale here is that no matter how decent you may be, the world conspires against you. Innocence is vulnerability, integrity is a liability.

Get a six pack, a good girl or friend and curl up with this movie, I guarantee that you will have a long, long talk afterward.

I hope I am not too vague but I am loath to give away the real joy of a film not being predictable and contrived. Who cares if it's not commercial, this movie made me sit on the edge of my seat and think. To the film makers, thank you. To it's critics, go ahead, make your own movie---I dare you!

In a time when most movie plots are derivative and predictable it is nice to be surprised and kept guessing like the thriller "Dark Summer" starring Connie Nielsen. Writer, Director Gregory Marquette kept the pace unpredictable and breathless. Just when you think you know where this movie is going it changes tracks on you and you are caught in the whirlwind of mystery and intrigue. Co-stars Mia Kirshner and Jean Hugues Anglade are powerful and very convincing. It was also a lot of fun when the power cameos made their appearances. Robert Culp, a perennial favorite of mine is absolutely wicked as the disgraced Judge. Ann Archer, who I cannot recall ever taking a role like the one she portrayed in this film, is worthy for a Golden Globe as the alcoholic mother. Other Cameo's like Frank Langella and Keith David are too short to be a satisfying but I give this film a solid recommend for the viewers, like myself, who are tired of the same old formulaic plots of Hollywood's recycling factory.

I have to say the first time I saw this movie I was left stunned.

This is superbly photographed, well acted and very unpredictable road movie thriller.

This is one movie where I honestly could not predict what was going to happen next. An excellent cast headed by French actor Jean Hugues Anglade (Betty Blue, Killing Zoe) the very luminous Connie Nielsen (Gladiator, The Ice Harvest) & sexy Mia Kirshner (The Black Dahlia, Mad City)play two sisters in a very unusual road movie.

The supporting cast is excellent too with the likes of Frank Langella, Anne Archer, Robert Culp & Keith David.

The storyline throws up one surprise after another as the three go on the road after the sister's father passes, quite quickly though things take a very dark turn and Gerard Huxley (Jean Hugues Anglade) begins to wonder if he has made a grave mistake.

The music in the film is good and the locations are beautifully photographed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and really cannot understand the low score. I give it 7/10

I've never written review before but this film has stuck with me for the past four days and I had to write about it. I apologize in advance at my amateurish prose.

I was watching Showtime late the other week and this film called ÒDark SummerÓ came on. At first I was like, This is really weird. But every time I was about to change the channel something new happened on the screen. First, the women were incredibly portrayed. I work in a hospital and I recognized all the symptoms of the underlying stress and depression. I immediately felt that the actors and I guess the director really did their research. Frank Langella who portrayed the father for too short a time (I always loved him), reminded me of a patient I had lost last year, a terrible man who treated his children terribly, just like the character Mr. Langella portrayed.

I think the thing that struck me the most about the film was that it took me on an emotional roller coaster ride and constantly surprised me.

I told you I am terrible at this and I have read some of the other reviews on this site and I think those people just didn't get it and were mean spirited. I loved this movie because I find that I can't get it out of my head. The performances were absolutely terrific. Connie Nielsen and Mia Kirshner as the two sisters were unbelievable to watch and literally travel with. Anne Archer gave an Oscar worthy performance and Jean Hughes Anglade whom I had never heard of before was absolutely wonderful to watch. After seeing his performance I looked up his name on this site and I want to see more films that he has done.

To the people who did not like this film, I just think this movie just reminded you of things you did not like in yourself. I may not know much about movie making but it seemed to me that these actors and the director put a lot of effort into making a film that is not Hollywood fare and not an arty movie that is trying to be more than it is. ÒDark SummerÓ is a great ride (literally) and a very well put together film and I recommend it to everyone who wants something out of the ordinary that is very, very satisfying film.

This has been compared to Hitchcock but I'm not sure why. It isn't that Hitch didn't make a lot of road movies. He made a lot of them, beginning with "The Thirty-Nine Steps." But there was always a gimmick, something towards which the protagonists were heading, and the reason was clear even if the particular MacGuffin was not. This road movie has no goal, not even character development. We get the picture of character in the first few minutes: one peaceful Frenchman and two crazy sisters, an innocent and two broads. (That's meant to be a play on words. See Mark Twain.) The sisters remain pretty much the same throughout. The French musician realizes what's up but feels some vague sense of loyalty (or something) towards these women that keeps him from turning them over. He has the best line in the movie -- "You Americans, and your guns!" The film runs from one episode to the next without adding much to what we already know. Hitch's movies were filled with episodes and set pieces too, but they added up to more than the sum of their parts. The cameos here are interesting but don't change the nature of the film. The cellist and the Gold Dust Twins run into all kinds of creepy characters -- two pick-up artists in a cowboy saloon; a retired judge with a penchant for peeping (naughty!); the pick-up artists redux, this time as rapists/gunmen; the mother, a nice quick portrait by Amy Archer made more impressive by horrible makeup and compulsive use of the f word. What's there isn't badly handled. There's a nice Dakota thunderstorm. When the two gunmen get blasted, one gets it in long shot, with a distant strobe flash and puff of smoke bluish in the headlights. The acting is okay too. The Frogs have this ability to take an actor and make him inhabit a part to such an extent that we forget that he never seems a promising lead -- this guy here, Jean Reno, others. Ordinary faces in extraordinary circumstances. In its structure, if it resembles Hitchcock at all, it's late, kind of tired Hitchcock. "The Birds" maybe, without the Oedipal underpinnings, the incest theme notwithstanding.