Too many mindf*%k$

Rating: 6/10 (22 June 2007)

Okay, so the beginning was funny. The ludicrous enthusiasm of the owners of that old inn, Cusack's impeccable dry sarcasm, the delicious moment where the camera pans back to the book signing "audience." Then things start to go awry. The camera-work in the lobby scene is nauseating. Samuel L. Jackson is ridiculously (almost criminally) underused, getting a grand total of three scenes; one long duet with Cusack, once as a hallucination, and once as the man who says, "It is done." They forgot to have him say "motherf*%ker," too. The real problem, though, is when Håfström starts going all quasi-Shyamalan on us. M. Night got it right the first time around: one big mindf*%k at the end, with a little bit of denouement so you can wrap your head around it. That's not for Håfström, though: he splits his WTF moments up and spreads them around the movie. The segue back to the beach made the whole goddamned theater groan. What pains me about this is that I wanted to like this movie, and I can't really hate it, not with Cusack's performance, the solid concept and the well-used effects. The whole thing made me think of the Twilight Zone spoof "The Scary Door" in the Futurama episode "I Dated a Robot." Håfström admitted to focus-grouping the ending. I'd like some of whatever those folks were drinking when they decided it should go to black after we hear that recording again.