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Number of Times Seen – Twice (5 Mar 2006 and 6 Oct 2019)
Brief Synopsis – An Iraqi war veteran who is suffering from bouts of memory loss is accused of a murder and is sent to an asylum where they perform strange treatments on him using a strait jacket and a claustrophobic drawer in a morgue.
My Take on it – This is a film that I recall seeing on video not long after it came out and it freaked me out so much that I never wanted to revisit it.
For this month’s ABC Challenge, I figured it was the right opportunity to try and see if my thoughts on the film would change after 13 years especially given the fact that I didn’t recall much about the story besides the “drawer”.
AS many of you already know, I’m not the biggest fan of films of the horror genre and I do my best to stay as far away from them as possible.
This film actually has a very intriguing idea that works because of the way that they present the mystery of it all.
As a fan of time travel stories, I was curious to see what they would do with the story.
It was a bit frustrating that they don’t even attempt to try and explain the science of the story yet it still helps make things feel even more mysterious due to the way that things play out.
Adrien Brody is a great choice for the lead because he finds a way to make his character feel quite disconnected with every other character that he encounters during the course of things.
The scenes that take place in the “drawer” come across as being quite intense because they film them in a way that makes us feel the claustrophobia of it all.
This helps make the story even more effective as a thriller/horror.
The story is actually a pretty simple one that is effectively made more complex by the way they film it.
This helps make things feel even more dis-ambiguous along the way and in some cases more confusing than necessary.
Bottom Line – Great idea that works because of the mystery of it all. Brody is quite good in the lead even if there are some very strange scenes where his character shows how distant he is from the other characters. The fact that they don’t even try to explain the science of things is a bit frustrating but that actually helps make this feel even more mysterious. The scenes in the “drawer” are quite tense because they shoot those scenes in a way where we get to feel the growing claustrophobia of the event which can be somewhat disturbing to watch; hence making it quite effective. The story itself tries a bit too hard to seem much more complex than it truly is and that helps make things feel more dis-ambiguous than it really needs to be. Recommended!
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Shots of Adrien Brody sobbing in the body drawer were real. Brody had asked Director John Maybury to keep him locked in, even when they weren’t filming, so he could get the feel of the character’s despair. Eventually, Brody lost it during filming, and Maybury caught it on tape. (From IMDB)
Rating – Globe Worthy (7/10)
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