Post by Bret Walker on Sept 9, 2006 13:01:05 GMT -5
Oh, how nice to live in the suburbs, where no one disturbs you, where life is like a dream. But Michael Faraday's dream is slowly turning into a nightmare, starting from the time his new neighbors, the Lang's, move in.
Michael is a somewhat disturbed man. His wife, an FBI agent, had been killed in a botched terrorist apprehension. He himself is a professor who teaches about terrorism and extremist groups. So when his new neighbors move in and he starts noticing strange inconsistencies in their stories, he begins to grow more and more suspicious. His suspicions alarm his girlfriend and his friend, who was his wife's FBI partner, but not because they believe them. Rather, they seem to feel that he's being extremely paranoid due to the fact that he has never come to terms with the manner of his wife's death.
However, as he comes closer to the truth about his neighbor, he finds he is being drawn into a twisted plot that he cannot prove to anyone. In the end it is his obsession with the terroristic plot hatched by his neighbor that distracts him so that he does not realize that he has become an active participant in the plot he seeks to expose.
There are several things about this film that I enjoyed. First, it does not have a typical Hollywood ending. I really can't say any more than that without giving it away. Suffice to say that at the end, the audience is left going "Huh?" the same as they did at the end of The Sixth Sense (1999).
Second, Mark Pellington gives us a perfect example of how suspense can really grip an audience by the heart. The story starts very slow and builds in a slow crescendo until the final climax when it all comes crashing together. The mastery of suspense is what makes this thriller so completely encompassing, releasing its grip only in the final epilogue type scenes where the viewer is left in incredulity and bewilderment.
I highly recommend this film for fans of suspense and thriller movies. Fans of Hitchcock will not be disappointed either, especially with the twist ending.
Michael is a somewhat disturbed man. His wife, an FBI agent, had been killed in a botched terrorist apprehension. He himself is a professor who teaches about terrorism and extremist groups. So when his new neighbors move in and he starts noticing strange inconsistencies in their stories, he begins to grow more and more suspicious. His suspicions alarm his girlfriend and his friend, who was his wife's FBI partner, but not because they believe them. Rather, they seem to feel that he's being extremely paranoid due to the fact that he has never come to terms with the manner of his wife's death.
However, as he comes closer to the truth about his neighbor, he finds he is being drawn into a twisted plot that he cannot prove to anyone. In the end it is his obsession with the terroristic plot hatched by his neighbor that distracts him so that he does not realize that he has become an active participant in the plot he seeks to expose.
There are several things about this film that I enjoyed. First, it does not have a typical Hollywood ending. I really can't say any more than that without giving it away. Suffice to say that at the end, the audience is left going "Huh?" the same as they did at the end of The Sixth Sense (1999).
Second, Mark Pellington gives us a perfect example of how suspense can really grip an audience by the heart. The story starts very slow and builds in a slow crescendo until the final climax when it all comes crashing together. The mastery of suspense is what makes this thriller so completely encompassing, releasing its grip only in the final epilogue type scenes where the viewer is left in incredulity and bewilderment.
I highly recommend this film for fans of suspense and thriller movies. Fans of Hitchcock will not be disappointed either, especially with the twist ending.