Not as clever as it pretends to be

Rating: 6/10 (15 September 2003)

Jake Gyllenhall stars in this mix of sci-fi, horror and mystery. And he does well, creating the memorable character of a troubled teen. Where the film falls down is the the way the plot mixes in pseudo science and pseudo religion. It is OK to do that if the pace of a movie is fast enough so that the viewer is not bothered but this is not the case here - it is a slow movie with a disappointing climax. If you are going to use this kind psychobabble you should at least make sure your plot holes are covered and again this is not the case. The director follows the standard method of a countdown to give the film some forward motion, a sense of increasing tension. The principle character is informed that the world will end in 28 days. The problem is that after a while, this countdown seems interminably slow - When the screen said there were 12 days to go I was disappointed, I was hoping it was at least within a week of the climax. There were other disappointments, the man in the scary bunny suit was certainly scary-looking but there were no moments of real terror, which is what I was expecting. On the positive side the mood and characterisation was good. It remains flawed but watchable.