Don't waste your time.
It was predictable and boring.
The acting and dialogue of the modern era characters were atrocious.
Plus all the women past and present in that piece are repressed neurotic frigid harpies.
God this thing just sucked.
Hard not to agree. I picked it up as the cast looked interesting (Penn, Hurley, Polley). My wife saw the Netflix sleeve on the table and called me to tell me "our book club won't read this author because she's too light weight, I can't believe you rented the movie."
She was right (gee, again?), it was pretty bad. As a standalone film, the past story might have made a decent thriller if it hadn't been so bleak and existential-ly, and actually had some character development besides Polley's bitterness.
The present tense story was just idiotic; Hurley was cast strictly because she has a great set of cans, Penn probably was drunk the whole time and the character of his wife was unlikable.
This movie was pretty bad, but I did appreciate it on some small level. I enjoyed Sarah Polley's performance in some small way, but that wasn't enough to save this film. Personally, I think if the casting was better, the movie would have been better.
The meaning of “nothing” was “I never told you that I inadvertently killed your father."
Should have dumped the present day, the sailboat, the 4 boring sailboat people
and spent the extra time fleshing out the story and characters on the island,
made it a period piece, that would've worked much better.
If you've ever seen her previous films, you'd know that Kathryn Bigelow is a good director who knows how to make a movie work, so I wonder if part of the problem with this one goes back to the novel it's based on. The parallel narrative scenario doesn't quite work because there's no real correspondence between them; the contemporary characters are shallow, spoiled, and full of themselves; and the original 1873 murder story would have stood on its own as a great subject for a novel or a film.
Oh well, you win some you lose some.
There, daddy, do I get a gold star?
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I was describing this movie to a friend just now, because we were talking about Hurt Locker. Anyway, I said I didn't like the present day story, and that it took up too much of the movie. It was just sexy Liz Hurley and Penn giving her creepster looks with a porn star mustache, and she said..."Ok, not gonna see that movie." I really liked the story that involved Sarah Polley, and I think that would have made a great movie on it's own. If they wanted to still have the present day story, it could be used to set it up like they did with this movie, but not have it take up half the time.
shareIt's one of those artsy lesbian axe murder movies, with better camera work and lighting. Agreed, the present day story was weak. Hurley is easy on the eyes, Penn isn't.
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You are right-Yet it was better then Her recent "winner" Hurt Locker-What is up with that???
shareI agree, it was extremely boring... The suspense on the murder of the 2 women was ok, not wonderful but the entire movie I was looking forward to these scenes and wished I didn't have to endure the "modern" story in the boat.
Yeah Sean Penn looked drunk all the time, Elizabeth Hurley was there just to show her boobs and butt, the wife was uptight and weird, and well Josh Lucas was being Josh Lucas (he's so handsome, but the man can't act to save his life).
I did enjoy Ciarán Hinds performance as Louis Wagner, and the Christenson girl (failed to remember if she was Karen, Annethe... I can't remember her name), but really the plot was slow, the music was godawful (you know the music played when your cable company screwed up and the "technical problems" screen appear? well it's about that music all the time). And the sexual tension between Hurley and Penn was so fake...
... Viva Clark Gable, el eterno y único Rey de Hollywoodshare
Just read this book and surprised to see it was made I to a movie. Book was a bit meh though as others have said here, the past story line of the murders and those characters were the best part. Funny about folk saying Penn looked drunk as in the book he was an alcoholic and was always drinking so guess that explains that. Will have to watch it now just to see what they made of it even though the book wasn't that good.
shareI completely agree with Dubdub1974, this movie sucked. A friend told me to watch this film because it was soooo good and it was based on a true historical murder. Well, I like true crime dramas, so I gave it a try. Boy, was I disappointed! Elizabeth Hurley's character was a slut, trying to entice a married man right in front of his wife, and Sean Penn, who is usually brilliant in his roles, did nothing but smoke, drink, and look longingly at Elizabeth Hurley. The other two characters on the boat were forgettable, and the historical murder was completely twisted around. I would like to see a better movie made about the historical murders, one that actually sticks to the facts and doesn't ruin the story with wild conjecture. Do yourself a favor, skip this film, it stinks.
"Crunch berries make me a better crime fighter."
I am trying to watch the entire thing but it's hard to sit through. It's bad and was made solely because some woman lost her top, so it's just another piece of Hollywood porn dressed up as I-Dont-know-what.
it's confusing even reading the synopses on IMDB, supposed to be two axe murders but one survives? Anyhow i gave it 4/10 and will be switching channels in 3,2,1...
i thought it was pretty good.
Why hang on to antiquated notions like "the soil is like my mother?" - Man