A well crafted film that lacks anything resembling hope.

Rating: 6/10 (6 August 2010)

I have this belief that there are certain "rules" movies are suppose to follow. One of those "rules" is the build and release of emotion. It goes back to Hitchcock talking about a bomb being hidden under a desk: We show two people talking while cutting to short shots of the bomb. This builds emotion.
But, the bomb can't go off. If the bomb goes off there isn't a release - just an explosion. All of that tension stays built up inside of you.
That's my problem with this movie, no matter how gut-wrenching, sad or even realistic it is, it has a fatal flaw. The audience, in my opinion, is never given a moment to release the tension - just an explosion.
This movie, following Hitchcock's example, is a series of tension building moments, followed by small, quiet, extremely depressing explosions.
But, maybe the intent of the movie was to build emotion/tension and not release it. Maybe that was the point.