Looks good - except Sam Neill's in it

Those films may or may not be good despite not because of Sam Neill.

Well, I watched it BECAUSE Sam Neill is in it - I expected him to have a bigger role than he did, but either way, I'm glad his appearance convinced me to give it a shot, turned out to be an excellent Tuesday afternoon flick (definitely NOT a good choice for the late evening if you are the least bit skittish).

Otherwise I might have missed an excellent movie that I'm REALLY glad I watched during daylight hours. I live alone and although I am literally armed to the teeth with guns in every room from my 30.06 and everything in between down to the little .22 I use in my ankle holster AND have 8 dogs - 3 pits, 2 rottweilers and 3 large shepherd mixes - I am STILL scared to death - pee in my britches scared - when I watch a well done ghost movie (and this was VERY well done - my heart is STILL racing and I'm still trembling LOLOL) and a LOT of that is the star's (Adrian Brody) (NOT Neill's) own reaction to the ghosts in his life - he brings them EASILY into the world of the living. Quite convincing that he himself may be going duck whacky and that it has nothing to do with his "patients". He makes it very difficult to differentiate between the living and the dead, which, to me makes this an outstanding ghost/mystery story. With believable clips regarding his deceased daughter, he makes you feel his pain and anguish without ever even revealing the source of his distress - (i.e., the way his daughter died, when, was he involved, was it an accident, murder, etc.) a remarkable feat for ANY actor -

I, for one, generally need to know WHY the actor is so invested in his pain before I can "believe" it but not so here. Brody can draw you in slowly, subtly, without you ever knowing you have been lassoed. Those are just a VERY few reasons I loved HIM in this film. I address Brody because Neill's role is SO MINUTE that it's not even WORTH mentioning - not even sure why he received screen cred and REALLY not sure why you would knock the entire film based on a total of maybe, MAYBE 10 minutes of screen time and MAYBE 500 spoken words ... so before anyone should tell YOU why we like Neill, perhaps we'd all be better served if you would tell us why you have such a STRONG distaste for Neill, ESPECIALLY in a film where his role is so incredibly insignificant that I cannot even understand why they cast him when ANY very low paid actor could have pulled off the part - and this is NO reflection on Neill, rather, a direct reflection on casting.

Neill's parts were SO small that I don't even RECALL them - I know he was a train passenger, and he was cross analyzing Brody in one scene, asking about Brody's daughter (and that scene was one that endeared me even MORE to Adrian Brody and had no affect on my opinion of Neill at all).

I won't go into the other dozen or so films that would have been lesser affairs had Neill not been cast in them because I have a feeling that you do not genuinely WANT to be convinced. I think what you want is a rubber stamp on your personal disapproval for the man or for the actor - I don't know which - or is it both? I'm with the earlier poster - did Neill steal your boyfriend (or girlfriend), or adopt the puppy you had your eye on? Try getting your Neill emotional house in order THEN judge his acting and films.