Fairly good remake but endless

Rating: 6/10 (26 January 2004)

I was impressed by the original Japanese version "Ringu" and that film was more tidy in it's storytelling but the same cannot be said about this remake. Story is about a video tape that when watched the telephone rings and the viewer has seven days to live. Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) is a reporter and when her niece dies under suspicious circumstances she investigates and hears the story about the tape. Her son Aidan (David Dorfman) has been drawing strange pictures that end up being part of the mystery. Her investigation leads to a cabin where the viewing of the tape took place and she takes it back with her so that her ex-husband Noah (Martin Henderson) who works with video equipment can check it out.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****
Aidan views the tape and now Rachel must hurry to find out the source of the curse and she and Noah head to a ranch where a woman named Anna Morgan (Shannon Cochran) use to breed horses but she meets her husband Richard (Brian Cox) who seems hostile. More investigating leads them back to the cabin and they discover a well under the floor where they think Anna's dead daughter may lie.
This film was directed by Gore Verbinski who is a very talented director and he would end up making "Pirates of the Caribbean". This is a very good looking film that keeps a dark and hazy atmosphere throughout and I don't recall one scene that has sunshine in it. Every shot that takes place outdoors is either rainy or overcast and it helps create an eerie mood to the film. I enjoyed the pacing of the film and it keeps your interest throughout although there are a few changes in the script from the Japanese version to make it more Americanized. The one problem I had with this film was that it didn't seem to want to end and there were probably three different times that it could have. It just seemed to go on and on and I have to admit that I can't really explain everything I watched in this film. It is a complicated story and to it's credit this film never ventures into typical Hollywood cliche's but I wish this could have been wrapped up better. I do recommend this film and Watts once again proves she's a solid actress but the script sure could have been tightened up. The original is definitely better but this isn't a bad effort.