I am a big fan of Poliakoff and this should have been great atmospheric piece but important parts are just off key, most of all the script that seem couple of drafts away from being what it could have been. Now it is just slow and quite unbelievable, things happen because the plot needs them to happen, and you can see the cogs turning. Just tighter editing might have helped at times, like when the first record (oh so conveniently) got broken.
Camera and editing seem a little off too, not as stunning visually as his last work on TV was... Cast are doing their best but somehow hang over nothing - usually Poliakoff manages this miracle, so little happens and is said but the tension and the sense of mystery (of life) underneath is palpable beneath - like puppets in the air, bit uncertain of their moves. Poor David Tennant was particularly badly served, left in our minds just a awkward over acted scream on the gramophone record... Maybe because there now is, in plot terms, a mystery too: what is going on with the records and the Jeremy Northam character and does Bill Nighy know. So the usual Poliakoff treat of sensing the strangeness of life in general doesn't manage to surface from under all this plotting. Also, the main character became at time quite annoying, always whining about not being believed even before anyone said anything...and then, when she realises she's in a nest of asps she keeps talking most unguardedly at places where she's clearly overheard. One thing that thriller's tolarate very badly is a hero/ine who comes across much dummer than the viewer...
What a missed opportunity!!! Just not good enough I'm afraid. Made you feel it was LAZY film making.
Camera and editing seem a little off too, not as stunning visually as his last work on TV was... Cast are doing their best but somehow hang over nothing - usually Poliakoff manages this miracle, so little happens and is said but the tension and the sense of mystery (of life) underneath is palpable beneath - like puppets in the air, bit uncertain of their moves. Poor David Tennant was particularly badly served, left in our minds just a awkward over acted scream on the gramophone record... Maybe because there now is, in plot terms, a mystery too: what is going on with the records and the Jeremy Northam character and does Bill Nighy know. So the usual Poliakoff treat of sensing the strangeness of life in general doesn't manage to surface from under all this plotting. Also, the main character became at time quite annoying, always whining about not being believed even before anyone said anything...and then, when she realises she's in a nest of asps she keeps talking most unguardedly at places where she's clearly overheard. One thing that thriller's tolarate very badly is a hero/ine who comes across much dummer than the viewer...
What a missed opportunity!!! Just not good enough I'm afraid. Made you feel it was LAZY film making.