An author, John James, and his two children move to rural South Carolina after his wife runs off with another man. The young son, Sam, goes along with it willingly, but Louisa, the young teen daughter, is much less eager to live out in the middle of nowhere. As the family tries to adjust to this new life, strange things begin to occur around their land. Plus, Louisa is beginning to grow more and more angry with those around her.
This movie earns a few stars for the cinematography. South Carolina looks beautiful or creepy, whichever the story calls for in a given scene. Also, the performances are very good, especially from Kevin Costner as John and Ivana Baquero as Louise. With these two actors in the leading roles, the film progressed more believably than it otherwise might have.
Mostly, though, this was a pretty ridiculous movie. I noticed this especially in how the characters were written. From the beginning of the film, Louisa was quite unlikeable; I know it's hard for teenage girls to adjust to big life changes (been there, done that), but she still came off as being kind of whiny. Because she started off as irritating and petulant, I didn't feel quite so sorry for her when she started to undergo the events of the film; I would have felt more if she'd started as a more sympathetic character. The other characters in the film felt pretty underwritten, despite good performances from the cast.
A lot of the other ridiculousness stemmed from the details that were not paid attention in putting this film together. Mostly, well, they're in rural South Carolina, but no one has a southern accent?? Really?? Well, I guess it's better not to have them at all than to have them done badly, but still...it definitely took me out of the movie to realize that. Also, as a teacher, I'm surprised that Sam's teacher was allowed to get quite so...cozy with the parent of a current student. Especially a single father. Like the issue of the accents, it's a small detail, but it's distracting.
Overall, the film had the standard "evil ancestral burial ground" plot and a lot of weakly written characters acting against it, along with the nit-picky but distracting issues mentioned above. Some good performances and good camera work save this from the bottom of the barrel.
This movie earns a few stars for the cinematography. South Carolina looks beautiful or creepy, whichever the story calls for in a given scene. Also, the performances are very good, especially from Kevin Costner as John and Ivana Baquero as Louise. With these two actors in the leading roles, the film progressed more believably than it otherwise might have.
Mostly, though, this was a pretty ridiculous movie. I noticed this especially in how the characters were written. From the beginning of the film, Louisa was quite unlikeable; I know it's hard for teenage girls to adjust to big life changes (been there, done that), but she still came off as being kind of whiny. Because she started off as irritating and petulant, I didn't feel quite so sorry for her when she started to undergo the events of the film; I would have felt more if she'd started as a more sympathetic character. The other characters in the film felt pretty underwritten, despite good performances from the cast.
A lot of the other ridiculousness stemmed from the details that were not paid attention in putting this film together. Mostly, well, they're in rural South Carolina, but no one has a southern accent?? Really?? Well, I guess it's better not to have them at all than to have them done badly, but still...it definitely took me out of the movie to realize that. Also, as a teacher, I'm surprised that Sam's teacher was allowed to get quite so...cozy with the parent of a current student. Especially a single father. Like the issue of the accents, it's a small detail, but it's distracting.
Overall, the film had the standard "evil ancestral burial ground" plot and a lot of weakly written characters acting against it, along with the nit-picky but distracting issues mentioned above. Some good performances and good camera work save this from the bottom of the barrel.