Strong story, poor movie

Rating: 5/10 (13 September 2008)

I think I might have seen one of the praises for this movie before I decided to watch it. The trailer is also promising. The movie? No.
Starting from the first scenes I realized I don't want to see this movie (but I was there, why not stay?). The actors are acting so poor that you almost try to guess where the camera crew was when they were filming. Most camera movements are shaky, the framing of the scenes is sometimes lacking "magic". The movie is very predictable, you can always guess what happens next and the dynamic is very slow. Just a few things happen until the last 15 minutes of the movie. The story takes its time to unwind and then the ending is very intense but is suddenly very dense after all the first part of the story. The characters are cartoonish and lack the power of "who" and "why". David Thewlis's character is probably the most cartoonish of them all. It is so very not believable.
I said the actors are poor. I'll take some of that back. Vera Farmiga is a good actress and has great potential with a good director. The kids do a great job as well.
The plot could have made a good movie. Maybe next time...