Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsNot perfect but rewatchable!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 20, 2022
I love scary movies but am usually unable to handle them. This movie was a mellower thriller, more interested in its own philosophical ideas than in grotesque contortions or the other kinds of imagery that tends to haunt my dreams, so I got to enjoy it.
That doesn’t mean it’s not creepy. The erratic dream sequences are plenty disturbing. The cinematography gave me True Detective vibes at the start, although I will agree that the acting, especially from the main character, is kind of stilted at times. What the other reviews fail to mention is that there is a plot reason why the other actors are a bit stiff at the beginning… but I won’t reveal that. (I’m rewatching it again as I’m writing this review, and it occurs to me that the plot twist actually makes this movie—specifically the dynamics between the characters—more rewatchable, which is a testament to the writer and the director’s subtlety.)
Everyone is beautiful and easy to look at, and as a few other reviews mentioned, the singing is gorgeous (not unlike Podrick’s “Jenny of Oldstones” in GoT; it’s just a really beautiful scene). I actually think that the banter is really cute. I love Dr. Frost’s highly specific and unsettling delivery, but Angela Gulner as the self-absorbed Tara Grandier is easily the best part of this movie: beautiful, sexy, hilarious throughout, you could tell she was really having fun with the writing. It is Gulner’s performance as Tara that brings home the ending for me.
