Quite an interesting little film. A 7/10 I'll give it, although there are some things about it that annoyed me, most prominently that there were a few plot threads that were placed there just to add red herrings to the film. Despite this, it kept me on the edge of my seat, with even a few cringe-inducing moments, especially as we neared the finale.
I recommend it. See it when you can.
JMAN
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Sorry JMAN but you are wrong , is not a good movie , where is the thriller ???? is a boring movie .Do anything else with your time guys , is a waste of time!!!
shareThere's a few *SPOILERS* in here.
I thought this was a pretty awful movie. Admittedly there was a few things I didn't really understand, like if the old baby sitter was trying to help or if she was evil. I don't understand the part where Shue sees herself when she thinks she has an intruder in the house either. But to be honest, I don't care. I don't think it's one of those movies that is really smart, which you have to watch a few times to completely understand (like The Machinist for instance), I just think it was a bad film. If I'm missing something in this film, well, I don't actually care.
I usually like Shue but in this she just got on my nerves. I know she was supposed to be suffering from Postnatal depression but everything she did seemed so whiney and wingey. And why, oh why oh why does the pet dog have to die in every one of these "thriller" films? It's so predictable, I knew the dog was gonna die as soon as it appeared on screen for the first time. And accidentally killing your dog with rat poison is just plain *beep* stupid, wether your depressed or not. Besides that, what the hell did the dog dying have to do with ANYTHING? Script writers: ENOUGH OF THE DOG DYING ALREADY!
Overall I wouldn't recommend anyone to see this. I gave it a 3/10, and think it's pretty much on the same level as a lot of othe recent "thrillers" that don't actaully "thrill", like Hide and Seek & Godsend. If you like those films I guess you might like this one....
The dog died as a harbinger of things to come. It was an accident, which shows that she is prone to doing stupid things and isn't too responsible. Also, the dog knew the evil of the doll and dragged it out of the house into the woods, so when the dog dies and she goes to look at the grave, she finds the doll again and things come full circle. The dog tries to help her, but it was futile in the end.
The sitter was obviously trying to help. You're supposed to second guess her though, that's why it's a thriller. Putting the "talisman" under the crib was supposed to protect the baby, like in "Pan's Labyrinth". After she takes the "talisman" from under the bed, the child is once again vulnerable to her evil.
Shue sees herself in the burglary incident because she's suffering from psychosis. That's a general sign of schizophrenia.
It's not that the movie is really "smart" as you put it, it's that you aren't. That doesn't mean that you should like the film though. Everyone has their own opinion, but don't say things that you haven't really thought through before you condemn the thing you're talking about.
All in all, I agree that it was a lot like "Hide and Seek" and "Godsend", but that's not a bad thing really, but it's not great. "The Machinist" is more my cup of tea also when it comes to thrillers, or any film that's got that Hitchcock element, but The Machinist is an excellent, excellent movie, a 10, so it's tough to compare it to First Born. I'd give it a 6, maybe a 6.5. Shue does a commendable job, but it's a bit slow and frustrating at times.
I had no idea what it was about and was expecting a devil child or something
5/10
Poor ending.
Just for the record, depression after pregnancy is called postpartum depression, not postnatal. Interesting post, though.
shareroibigabriel:
o·pin·ion --- Pronunciation: [uh-pin-yuhn]
–noun
1. a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.
2. a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.
3. the formal expression of a professional judgment: to ask for a second medical opinion.
4. Law. the formal statement by a judge or court of the reasoning and the principles of law used in reaching a decision of a case.
5. a judgment or estimate of a person or thing with respect to character, merit, etc.: to forfeit someone's good opinion.
6. a favorable estimate; esteem: I haven't much of an opinion of him.
JMAN
Good lord, talk about bland.
There is no story to speak of. Just a horror-movie score where one was/is supposed to be gripping one's seat and what happens? Nothing. My interest only peeked for 3 seconds with that ending.
It felt contrived, the acting was appalling, they (film-makers) seemed to be trying too hard and for what? Uneventful nothingness.
I wouldn't recommend seeing it.
I cant believe i sat through the whole movie waiting for something to happen, apart from loud music after a quiet lead up sequence to try and make you jump there was nothing to the movie. It doesnt explain itselt it plods along giving false hope of a story or of a reason for whats happenning.
Spoilers;
1 who was the girl on the train
2 what was the doll
3 what about the diary and jenny who was she???
4 what baby? thats it? what baby?
worst ending i have ever seen ever!
On no, looks like I'm not the only one who isn't "smart" just because I didn't get this movie, eh iShotJayGatsby?
Maybe I didn't get everything in this movie because I thought it was sh*t and lost interest about 30 mins into it.
I guess not. I didn't say you had to be all that smart to get it anyway. I just thought it was fairly obvious that the doll was an evil element in the household and the creepy girl on the train was a messenger of sorts. That's what got the ball rolling for the plot. A lot of people know that children and dogs, the dog in this case, are innocent in nature and are used in literature and film to note the presence of evil (ghosts and whatnot). I was just saying you shouldn't trash something because you don't understand it. I also said that I didn't think it was a great film either. It's decent, like 6 out of 10 decent, but no more. It's interesting because there aren't any movies involving postnatal depression. It's sort of a new hot topic in psychiatry, which is another reason why I didn't think it was that hard to understand that she was experiencing psychosis.
And the ending, "What baby?" is not that bad. I think there are many worse elements to the film, such as the unimportance of the diary since we never know what was written in it. We just know that Shue was writing in it and didn't know it, which hints at her schizophrenic tendencies (not knowing she put the knife in the crib, seeing herself trying to break into her house, burying her child and not even remembering). I mean, you already know she buried her child alive in the back yard and that she's pretty nuts, so why is her saying, "What baby?" all that surprising? It's sort of cheesy, but it was a fitting ending to a so so movie.
And I wasn't trying to pick a fight. This is an internet message board. I wasn't trying to be a prick, I'm not down with e-fighting.
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i agree totaly boring.it was like watching someone go thru the regular life
very very slow moving movie,only the ending was a dark twist.
took to damn long to build up.
just when u thought something was gonna happen it didnt.
The movie is about the anxiety all parants have taking care of a new born, if you never have felt that then youll never appreciate this movie.
I watched this movie last night. As a first impression, it was a bad movie. You're right. The story is taking you along for this ride and next thing you know the credits are rolling. Like many, I was expecting something supernatural. I really thought it was going to be a remake of Rosemary's Baby. When the "nanny" showed up, I thought, "Here we go with the baby snatching scenario". What hurts this movie is its entire focus on the wife. Every other character in the story were so infrequently used, they appeared distant. Hmm ... maybe this was intentional--i.e. if someone was close, they may have picked up on the signs. Did the husband act like a man who was a father? At the husband's company's party, the lady made a great comment--something along the lines of the couple hiding the baby. How many new parents actually hide their first born? Most are showing pictures of the baby and the baby itself for all to see, whether they want to see them or not. :) Regarding the imagined break-in, I kinda thought it wasn't real. In the beginning, she was dancing with a partner in their performance and, because the one good shot of the suspect had her wearing some similar clothing, I thought it was her mind playing tricks. The poster that commented about how this movie was showing the audience the fragile state of the wife from beginning to end, I can support that, but movies have to allow the audience to believe what they are seeing. It seemed like unless you've experienced this, the movie is hard to swallow. The wife, in one scene is protective of the baby (when the helper shows up) and is disregarding of the baby in another (the break-in). Her strapping on her magic lasso and charging through the house looking for burglar in the dark was a bit tough to believe. Get the baby and get out of the house! How complicated is that? I understand she needed to do that for the story. As far as her writing in the journal, I felt like it was part of her reaching the end of her journey or, more apt, her finally snapping. Her return to dancing, her being intimate with her husband, her whole demeanor after the hospital visit, all, to me, was like her reaching finality. A thought I had, though, is since this was current times, how come the doctors/hospital didn't detect the symptoms? When the husband saw the wife shaking the baby through the baby monitor, I thought he was going to have her committed, but, nope, she realized what she'd done and held the baby close to her and the incident was quickly forgotten.
In ending this I will say that reading everyone's insight into the story actually raised my low rating of this movie. I will watch it again since I, now, know the ending. Q: In the end, when the husband asks her where is the baby, does she respond with "That is the baby"? I couldn't make out what she was saying, but did hear her second response of "What baby?" when he asked a second time.
Thanks
Don’t worry orbieflex, I had a hard time trying to figure it out too.
Sorry thomas-769 but I’m afraid you’re wrong.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Postpartum depression (also postnatal depression) is a form of major depression which can affect women, and less frequently men, after childbirth. It is widely considered to be treatable. Studies report prevalence rates from 5% to 25%, but methodological differences among the studies make the actual prevalence rate unclear.
As quoted by Mean_Matte, “The movie is about the anxiety all parents have taking care of a new born, if you never have felt that then you’ll never appreciate this movie”.
I take a real offence to that comment, I’ve had 2 kids, I’ve had postnatal depression both times and I still don’t appreciate this movie.
Besides, she didn’t just have anxiety, it went well beyond that.
It was obvious that Shue’s character had postnatal depression to the extreme but it was just so all over the place, to me anyway.
Can’t say I enjoyed it but that’s just my opinion.
agree with iShotJayGatsby is boring movie and isan't so hard to get it is obiviosly shue's is ''crazy'' dog try to help her, the doll is bad ,the nany is try to help the baby and her.
sry for my bad english.
understanding this movie neither makes anyone smart nor changes the fact it is a very bad movie.
as previosuly said it is low there is no suspense and the ending seems tacked on for shock value.
even when you understand the plot it is not well constructed nor cohesive and makes for very boring viewing.
In my opinion avoid this at all costs, its a terrible waste of time and abasd example of its genre, for something similar but better I would say go for Danika.
this movie rocks!
i started watching it for the 1st 30 min i felt it would be a total waste of time....then i found myself gripped and i loved the end very much.
very shocking and very sad.
9/10 score.
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There was no witchcraft. The babysitter puts (or not) something below the craddle (some Eastern European superstition probably to protect Jessica), but that's just a diversion. The doll and the witchcraft book are used the same way.
When she went out to bury the doll, I told my wife... — SHE IS KILLING HER! My wife said to me — No... it is just a doll, she did the same at the pool.
I told her - don't you see that she saw mice that didn't exist and saw herself breaking into her house? She was obviously nuts and killed her girl. The witchcraft book is a good diversion... it almost made me believe that Satanism was behind it. But the mice on the cradle made obvious to me that she had lost it.
Your wife was on the ball, but like you I really thought she was burying the doll in the backyard. This movie definitely had plenty of diversions in the storyline, enough to keep you wondering what the heck was going on.
My husband and I are trying to conceive...ugh..adoption is looking all the more appealing.
This movie was horrible. Loose plot, bad acting and a very weak end twist that you should have known within the first 15 minutes of the film.
I'd rank this movie with the 2006 remake of The Wicker Man and Brown Bunny. An absolute waste of time!!
Avoid!
I'm very disappointed in this message board because it seems like you people would pick up on the most obvious answer this movie has in it.
You waste your time bickering over postpartum or postnatal depression being the proper term but you fail to realize that she wasn't suffering from this.
She suffered from postpartum psychosis. A rare and much more dangerous condition than postpartum depression. The doctor in the movie specifically said this to help you out but I guess every one of you missed this part of the movie.
It's a simple story of the way postpartum psychosis takes effect and many times the people around the mother are oblivious to what is happening and misinterpret the signs as simply postpartum depression.
Thank you.
In fact if you're interested in reading an article about this particular disorder and how it ends in the death of the baby approx. 4% of the time I invite you to visit this website for a brief article on the subject.
http://www.pregnancy-info.net/postpartum_psychosis.html
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Ok, I am a parent, and I have felt anixety but this movie was not thought out, not written well and just plain Stupid. I love Elizabeth Shue But I didn't like her in this movie. I called the ending after five minutes into the movie.
We Ourselves.
BRAVO
shareYou waste your time bickering over postpartum or postnatal depression being the proper term but you fail to realize that she wasn't suffering from this.Thank you! That was bugging the crap out of me. I suffered with postpartum depression after the birth of my son 20 years ago. Thankfully, medication helped. Both PPD and PPP are very real and very serious conditions that a woman cannot help having.
She suffered from postpartum psychosis. A rare and much more dangerous condition than postpartum depression. The doctor in the movie specifically said this to help you out but I guess every one of you missed this part of the movie.
It's a simple story of the way postpartum psychosis takes effect and many times the people around the mother are oblivious to what is happening and misinterpret the signs as simply postpartum depression.