0 comments
  Email this

  

Posted on Sunday, February 17th, 2008 6:47:55 GMT by: Jamie Thornton
Posted under: movie news thriller drama

Year: 2007
Release date: Feb. 19th (DVD)
Director: Adam Green & Joel Moore
Writer: Jeremy Danial Boreing & Jorel Moore
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Amazon link: DVD for $16.99
Review by: Jamie Thornton (via JT)
Rating: 4 out of 10

Spiral, billed as a psychological thriller, pits a beautiful young woman, Amber, against Mason, a socially inept auto insurance salesman who likes to paint and listen to jazz music. Spiral had a great trailer and opening scene, yet it failed to deliver on almost all levels (one exception is the excellent cinematography). For a character driven film to work, one needs to care about the characters. For a psychological thriller to work, one needs to care about what happens to the characters. I never felt a moment of sympathy for any of the three main characters and began hoping halfway through that the movie would kill them all off in the end.

Mason’s neurotic mannerisms and psychotic tendencies are never explained. It's a lot of nightmares, teeth grinding, face scrunching and asthma attacks without explanation. Other than a visit to the cemetery where it’s revealed that Mason’s father probably killed his mother, we don’t get much more explanation as to why Mason is the way he is.

Berkeley, Mason’s too-cool boss, is supposed to be Mason’s only friend, but their relationship does not feel plausible. Amber is just annoying. She talks too loud for too long and treats Mason too much like a child. He gives her no reason to believe he’s sane, or anything other than a weird and dysfunctional individual. Yet we’re supposed to believe she doesn’t sense he’s really a psycho and somehow romance between them is inevitable!

Many moments made me cringe, especially when Mason’s neurotic freak-outs somehow make Amber more attracted to him. This was the final straw. Maybe some people would feel worried as the two of them grow closer – oh no, watch out beautiful young woman! I just rolled my eyes. Sorry, movies with stupid women placing themselves in incredibly stupid situations became a cliché a long time ago. She’s asking to get killed, and about thirty minutes into the film I was rooting for just that so she would finally shut up about feeding bread crumbs to fat ducks in a pond.

Almost all of Mason’s freak-outs occur when he’s alone. It took fifty minutes for there to be a scene where a character’s safety was even slightly in question. Yep, I looked at the counter to be sure. Fifty minutes worth of setup. Nothing should take this long to setup, especially a movie that’s only an hour and half long.

The trailer promises a classic woman-in-jeopardy storyline. The cinematography was excellent - vivid colors, interesting angles and close-ups. The premise was intriguing, the main character eccentric and interesting at first. Ultimately, the story and characters never felt plausible. Save your money.

One unexpected highlight: Number Six from Battlestar Galactica (Tricia Helfer) plays a walk-on role as Berkeley’s girlfriend. Now there was a plausible character! As soon as Berkeley starts acting like a crazy jerk, she leaves him.

Related articles

More Aussie awesomeness in the thriller RESTRAINT

Posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 21:14:28 GMT by: quietearth |   2 comments

Abandoned kids live on crime under the DESERT SON

Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 17:43:32 GMT by: agentorange |   5 comments

IFFR 2010: First poster and some stills for Simon Rumley's RED WHITE & BLUE

Posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 0:14:51 GMT by: quietearth |   0 comments

Trailer for stunning German thriller DAS LETZTE SCHWEIGEN

Posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 17:42:39 GMT by: quietearth |   3 comments

No Right Turn - Part fantasy, part mystery, all pulp!

Posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 1:45:54 GMT by: quietearth |   0 comments

Trailer for Australian thriller BEAUTIFUL

Posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 20:24:40 GMT by: quietearth |   0 comments