Saw The Film!!! (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)

I happened to catch the world premiere last night of Anamorph and thought I'd post some thoughts on the film. First of all, one who is walking into this has to understand that it is not your run-of-the-mill serial killer thriller. It does have all of the tried and true bases, but it isn't really about the crimes, which are intricate, or the killer, who is faceless. It's about one man's struggle with his past, with his own mistakes. As Dafoe would explain after the show, it is a character piece. A "ghost story" if you will. So once you watch the film and understand that, it is fantastic. The film is gorgeous, with rich and textured mise-en-scene. This becomes apparent right away in the starting credits. The score is haunting as well as foreboding, really pulls on the tension strings. Acting is well-done on the whole. Speedman really seems to stick out to me, though it may just be me, but he does a serviceable enough job. Dafoe steals the show though, seemingly without effort, or words for that matter. His mannerisms and sheer melancholy really are more than sufficient to communicate everything you need to know about the character's thoughts and feelings. Basically, the film works, which is all a film can be asked to do, but I won't be surprised to see this bomb at the box-office, only to become a cult-favorite later. Oh, and if you're in the Milwaukee area, you should definitely come out and support the Milwaukee International Film Festival, it only gets better every year.