Intelligent, literate and sophisticated movie that treats its audience's intelligence with respect; successfully breathing new life into a hoary old premise. The ultimate focus is on a man slowly coming to terms with the accidental death of his young son, as his nightmares slowly become more real than his waking life such that they seem almost a substitute for it.
No great acting performances here; the actors merely play the parts of ordinary people going about their daily lives. Behavioural details make the relationships convincing and emotionally warm (especially Elizabeth Peña as the troubled hero's supportive girlfriend) while the 1970s are unobtrusively suggested without getting in the way of the story.
In retrospect, the twist ending is obvious, despite the biblical clues being subtly dropped into the audience's lap. The red herrings are basic to the structure of a well thought out script yet make sense - in context - as opposed to being just add ons designed to confuse. The religious symbolism here is unusually effective in being evocative of the spiritual pretensions of the movie but without being laid on thick.
This film's only failing lies in not finding a proper balance between its thriller and horror elements. The horror wins partly at the expense of the thriller; suggesting this movie could have profitably been two separate genre exercises rather than just the one.
Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
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