1/10
Dreadfuly abysmal
3 March 2015
Warning: Spoilers
I was warned not to watch this film by several sources but, as it is the first movie with a credited appearance by Jennifer Lawrence, I ignored them and gave it a go. To be fair, in the hands of another director, this might not have been too bad. Filmed around 2005 but not released till 2013 (which should tell you a lot) the story involves a fading actress, Kathryn Vale, played by Lena Olin, who has decided to try for a comeback. Living in her shadow is her daughter, Zoe Hughes (Rosamund Pike) who is trying to get her first big break but at the same time is living in her mother's shadow. Casting a dark light over all the proceedings is the fact that Kathryn is still suspected of murdering her husband, Zoe's step-father, many years ago. A fact that her current partner Dean Winters (Jake Kelly) and her P/A Molly Price (Edie Fontaine) keep bringing to her attention due to a series of accusing cards that arrive in the mail or on her pillow. Cue a lot of jealous recriminations between mother and daughter as they try to upstage each other and you have the basis for a solid if not very imaginative plot. Unfortunately this is where the movie goes belly up in a big way. We eventually find out that Kathryn DID murder her husband during a flashback where you see him making moves on the teenage Zoe (Played by Jennifer Lawrence) and that she and Dean were responsible for the notes. The Direction is horrible, the script laughable and the dialogue very bland. The chemistry between all the leads is practically non-existent and somewhere along the line Pike and Olin forgot how to act. To cap it all, some very drastic cutting left the running time at a little over 68 minutes. The result is an in-cohesive mess, very tediously plotted with little or no charm. Even the soundtrack is boring. I can't recommend this to anyone, not even die hard Jennifer Lawrence fans as her appearance is limited to a very brief appearance of her, admittedly looking stunning in a pair of shorts and tights,pouting seductively at her step-father. It really isn't worth the bother.
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