Hope Lost

With one overwhelmingly positive and overwhelmingly negative review on the books, I will take the middle ground on this polarizing film - much like the * ratings so far, there is very little consistency. As the 1-Star reviewer indicated, there is very little positive in this movie. Where I disagree with them is that the world isn't all sunshine and lollipops - therefore why should our cinema? Hostel and Saw are in no way pleasant movies, yet are highly regarded in their genre.

While calling this "entertainment" is an extremely debatable and subjective, the fact is that the movie accomplishes what it sets out to achieve. I don't know the reality of what's in here - which makes me quite happy (sometimes ignorance is indeed bliss) - but it's portrayed in an extremely viable way, with acting that is quite strong, and actually far above expectations given the B-list lineup. And in all fairness, there are many things this movie could have done to push the torture-porn boundary, but it is really quite scaled back with more effort paid to character and motivation.

While certainly not a masterpiece in any sense of the word, but if you're a fan of the genre, it is a quality addition to the group. If you're not, then simply avoid.

A mediocre thriller from 2015. Although there are familiar actors, both the shooting is bad and the handling of the subject is bad. There is a main story but the characters seem to have no stories. The man who says he's a movie director takes pictures of the woman he met at the bar. He says he sent these photos to the producer and he liked them very much. He tricks her into taking her to Rome. Then he sells the girl to a man to become a street prostitute. The girl is put to work with the threat of her younger brother's life and it is said that she will be released if she pays the 30,000 euro debt. There are a lot of girls who are forced to work this way.

It's as if the movie script was brought to a fait accompli without any thought. There is too much exaggeration in the acting.

There is sexuality and nudity in the movie. There is also a footjob scene through pants.

This film should be trashed, as it's trash.

On the pretext of "exposing" human sex trafficking, we are given a blow-by-blow litany of degrading images of sadism.

Michael Madsen and Mischa Barton must be either desperate, desensitized and swimming in a spiritless artistic swamp or deranged. Maybe all three.

What a terrible reflection on our society that this is portrayed as "entertainment". Shameful.

I realize that people still think film is primarily for entertainment, when rather much of the "fiction" is art depicting life directly from the conscience of those creating the film. So if the goal is to walk away from the film satisfied that you will be thoroughly entertained, you will indeed be disappointed.

Some of the reviews stated there were "violent scenes for no reason." The suffering instituted by human trafficking was depicted in all it's horrific and pointless tragedy. Snuff films are not urban myths.

The average human psyche cannot conceive of the evils done in the dark. The film, whether glorifying it for those initiated in the knowledge, or raising awareness of how women, men, and children are brutally lured, kidnapped, and enslaved probably does both. That's the dialect here.

I'm still about the execution of well-developed screenplays and fluid storylines, so 6 stars was a fair assessment. The actors portray their roles as they are understood to operate in the trafficking system as of 2015. Check. Snuff films, still found on the dark web. Check. Acting was sufficient to help the audience open or keep their eyes wide shut to the darkness of the world. Given this was released again for 2020, I suspect it is about raising awareness to what I hope is an end to this Satanic system of torture and enslavement of humanity.

This was almost a really good movie, and then I'm not sure what happened. I wish they had just kept it a trafficking movie instead of trying to make it about snuff films out of nowhere. Mischa Barton could have been such a strong character, but it's like they didn't let her. The story began to feel false after the abortion foolery scene, and went downhill thereafter... still kinda liked it, but that's probably because I had such low expectations, I saw it's rating beforehand, and also I liked the very end.