As I watched this film an old saying came to my mind: "Just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean they're not out to get you." That's not a bad summary of the central dilemma of this movie. Maika Monroe and. Karl Glusman star in this film as Julia and Francis - a young American couple who have to move to Bucharest in Romania after Francis gets a promotion from his company. As the movie opens we see them in a taxi heading toward their new apartment and everything seems good. There's a sense of anticipation and even excitement on Julia's face as this new pahse of their life begins. But we're also introduced to one of the problems Julia will face - while Francis speaks Romanian, she doesn't. She's dependent on others being around to help her with the language and if she happens to be alone (which she is a lot, because her husband is working long hours) she's quite lost. Very quickly it becomes clear that this is a very isolating environment for Julia, and she starts to become a bit paranoid (or does she?) when she thinks she sees a man in another building watching her, and then becomes convinced that he's following her. This happens after she and Francis, very soon after their arrival, had stumbled across a murder scene and discovered that there was a serial killer loose, preying on young women. She continues to encounter this man in the brown jacket, and the question becomes whether he's actually stalking her or whether she's effectively become the stalker who follows him.
Monroe was excellent in the role. Having surfed through her filmography it turns out that this is the first movie I've seen her in and I was impressed. She brought an innocence and naivete to the role as she struggled with this environment in which she had few people she could talk to and was dependent on others to translate everything that was being said. If I could compare Monroe to anyone it would be perhaps to a young Amy Adams (think of her role in "Enchanted" - a very different kind of movie obviously, but the same - if exaggerated in the case of "Enchanted" - innocent and naive qualities to the character.) A very good device was the fact that when people spoke Romanian in the movie, the film added no subtitles. We heard the Romanian, which put us in essentially the same frustrating position as Julia - we can't understand what's being said and we have to depend on someone to finally explain it. That helped me to relate to Julia's situation and drew me further into the movie.
I confess I was going to rate this a little bit higher except for the fact that I didn't like the ending. The movie had been mysterious and suspenseful, with a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty (a lot of atmosphere you might say) but the ending was too abrupt and too definitive. I didn't think it suited the rest of the movie. But having said that, it was still on the whole a very enjoyable movie. (7/10)
Monroe was excellent in the role. Having surfed through her filmography it turns out that this is the first movie I've seen her in and I was impressed. She brought an innocence and naivete to the role as she struggled with this environment in which she had few people she could talk to and was dependent on others to translate everything that was being said. If I could compare Monroe to anyone it would be perhaps to a young Amy Adams (think of her role in "Enchanted" - a very different kind of movie obviously, but the same - if exaggerated in the case of "Enchanted" - innocent and naive qualities to the character.) A very good device was the fact that when people spoke Romanian in the movie, the film added no subtitles. We heard the Romanian, which put us in essentially the same frustrating position as Julia - we can't understand what's being said and we have to depend on someone to finally explain it. That helped me to relate to Julia's situation and drew me further into the movie.
I confess I was going to rate this a little bit higher except for the fact that I didn't like the ending. The movie had been mysterious and suspenseful, with a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty (a lot of atmosphere you might say) but the ending was too abrupt and too definitive. I didn't think it suited the rest of the movie. But having said that, it was still on the whole a very enjoyable movie. (7/10)