*This review doesn't contain actual spoilers, but you can inference what DOESN'T happen at the end of the movie from this review, and that could be a spoiler in and of itself* After wasting 2 hours watching this, I was so shocked by the (current) 7.8 IMDb rating that I decided to waste another 15 minutes of my life and add up the ratings of the 164 people who had left a review and rating, and compare that to the anonymous ratings left by supposedly real people. I strongly felt, and feel, that the IMDb ballot box for this movie is being stuffed so to speak. Not surprising in an age where companies unabashedly advertise on TV that they will build your website for you and then fill it with good (fake) reviews. The result of my find, was that the average rating for all 164 people who left a review was 6.5, which is a pretty far cry from a 7.8 on IMDb when it comes to movie quality. A movie approaching 8 stars is generally considered a must-see, whereas a movie with 6.5 stars is rather mediocre. That said, I still feel that even the 6.5 rating is skewed, because as a newer movie that won't even hit home video for some time, it's stacked with an initially high percentage of movie critic reviews as opposed to actual moviegoers, and we all know how critics love pointless, artsy fartsy movies by snobbish directors who don't feel like there has to be any point or meaningful conclusion to a movie. As I skimmed through the reviews, it was apparent to me that the 9 and 10 star reviews were largely from critics and art lovers, where as the plethora of 1 and 2 star reviews were from average moviegoers.
On that note, IMHO this movie is utter garbage with little to no redeeming qualities, and a complete waste of 2 hours of your life. As someone else aptly titled their review, it's like sex without the orgasm, however that's being far too generous to this movie since at least sex is enjoyable, if not fulfilling, without the orgasm lol. The writing, screenplay, pacing, acting, and especially directing, were among the worst I've ever seen, which is sad because there are a few very good actors in it (and some very bad ones) who have turned in very compelling performances in the past. I honestly don't know what this movie bills itself as. I know what I was expecting beforehand and as I was watching it, and that's a suspenseful, psychological thriller that must be building up to some really great plot twist. But nope, it simply flat lined, literally and figuratively.
Separate out the stories within the story, and there's no way in hell a studio would've ever made a movie about either of them. The real life of Amy Adams character was insanely boring, commonplace, and pointless. The story within the manuscript was very drawn out with poor dialogue, poor acting, poor direction, and absolutely no meaningful or redeeming conclusion. It's like some real life writer wrote a short story (which is all the manuscript inside this movie really is), and then desperately tried to stretch that out into a full length movie. Ever seen the "The Box" with Cameron Diaz, which was based on a short story? That movie had a kernel of an interesting idea, along with two or three good actors, but those elements aren't enough to make a good, full length movie, and the result was a hot mess. That's exactly what happened here. The real lives of Amy and Jake's characters are completely and totally pointless if they don't in some meaningful way tie in to the story of the manuscript (which they don't), so why even bother with that side of the movie if that story isn't compelling and doesn't even lead anywhere? The answer is simple, because without it, much like "The Box", you have maybe 30-40 minutes of an incredibly humdrum screenplay consisting only of the manuscript itself, with an immensely unfulfilling and unimaginative conclusion.
Honestly, as it progressed, I was fully expecting this movie to have a sort of "Jacob's Ladder" type ending, with the audience discovering that TONY had actually killed Susan and his daughter in real life many years ago, for whatever reason, and that perhaps he was now in prison or an institution etc., creating a sort of fantasy world for himself, imagining that he's finally become a successful writer and that their deaths were just a story in one of his books, in which he ends up avenging them and sacrifices himself in the process, while meanwhile his wife and daughter are alive and well and living out their lives without him. IMHO that certainly could've been spun into a much more compelling ending than this pile of garbage.
If you haven't seen "Jacob's Ladder", and you want to see a GOOD psychological thriller that actually deserves the 9 and 10 star ratings that so many people inexplicably have given this, rent it on Netflix or whatever now. If you like an intriguing movie that makes you THINK about what's real and what isn't, yet entertains as well as scares you, and also makes you feel like you need to watching it another time or two to really understand it, THAT'S the movie for you. You'd be far better served watching it twice than watching this movie once. Also, for the Jake Gyllenhaal fans out there, watch Zodiac if you haven't already. Again, a suspenseful thriller that is far more deserving of some of the ratings and reviews this movie has gotten.
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