Daniel Craig (Quantum of Solace) stars in this psychological thriller/murder mystery. Will finds out that his house was the site of a gruesome murder five years ago. In order to protect his wife Libby (Rachel Weisz, The Lovely Bones), and their two daughters, Will Atenton digs into the house's mysterious past.
Sometimes billed as a ghost story, sometimes just a psychological thriller, there are plenty of red herrings in the first half hour that give you the impression that it is both. In a way, it *is* both. And
in a way, it is neither. There are many kinds of ghosts... it's up to you to decide which kind are in this movie.
There is a twist halfway through the film that made me roll my eyes, and I came very close to giving up on it altogether. Stick with it. Despite how unbelievably cliche it looks like it's going to go, it won't be as bad as you think.
I will say this... I figured out the movie almost immediately, or at least the murder mystery part. That was telegraphed very early on, and I don't know if it was excellent acting on the part of the cast exuding this lack of morality, or if it was just written too obviously, but the first daylight scene at the house and the neighbors' house across the street made me shout out my first guess, and it was correct. I was just missing a few details. But here's the thing... I still enjoyed the ride while confirming my theory. The acting is incredible, they just didn't have as great a script as they could have.
No laughing out loud at this one, and no real needle dropping... in fact, it can move incredibly slowly at times. In that sense, this is a good movie to knit to because the dramatic music will warn you when the action is about to happen. There was one eyeroll, which I've mentioned already, and that was when Will went to the psychiatric hospital. There was also a holy crap moment in the middle, which I can't reveal without giving away a plot point, but it was a doozy.
Overall, I'd give this movie a three and a half stars out of five. The unbearably slow stretches in the middle, and the unbelievably cliche moments really knocked some points off. If you can make it to the ending, though, you will enjoy it so long as someone hasn't spilled the beans ahead of time. For Amazon's current price of less than $9, though, it's worth adding to a collection if you enjoy this type of film.
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