Luminous Motion (1998) User Reviews

"Motion" Sickness

[george.schmidt · 27 April 2004]

LUMINOUS MOTION (2000) 1/2 * Deborah Kara Unger, Eric Lloyd, Jamey Sheridan, Terry Kinney.

Incredibly lethargic and horribly directed/acted/written

adaptation of a novel by Scott Bradfield about boozy, irresponsible Unger as a mother of maddeningly pretentious 10 year old Lloyd

and their aimless road trip to nowhereseville that lacks any

cohesion. Avoid this at all costs.

hardluck mom is a subplot to childhood mental illness

[zykracosmos · 3/10 · 8 March 2013]

I didn't get it. I rewound the last ten minutes and tried to come to some conclusion with this movie, but to no avail. The best I could figure was that the kid was was clinically delusional, with a dose of mommy separation complex thrown in. We know there are some dead people in this movie, but the director creates so much intentional confusion, you really don't know what's going on towards the end. You come away agreeing with the girl who says "you may need some professional help" but don't really know towards the end if it ever arrived. The weird part with the father seems to be an illusion in reverse as the film goes along. I can say watching this movie didn't add anything meaningful to my day. Cannot imagine how strange it must have been for Lloyd to act in this psycho-drama.

A triumph of original cinema

[spitbucket · 10/10 · 13 February 2002]

Luminous Motion is unique. Always thought-provoking, and carefully cultivating an ecstatic balance of pathos and empathy, the film carries us along on the interior and exterior journies of its accomplished actors. The cinematic methods employed cleverly coincide with the themes of the film, and are never dry or passe. Few films explore so deeply and with such candor the potentially hazardous turns of parent/child relationships, and the psyche of the child as an individual in the grasp of the wider world. Few films have such resonance in today's pale climate of mass-produced cinematic imitation. Make the effort to interface with this film and suspend your cultural strictures for a time; it will be time well spent, and you might even come to see the world around you in a whole new light.

A deeply moving tale...

[macgyvermagic · 8/10 · 10 January 2001]

Although the actual dying of people is never shown, the feeling that it actually happened is created. In my opinion a great accomplishment. I can totally understand what Philip must have felt. I also liked the links to chemistry. As far as I know they were totally correct and gave the story a nice turn. (I study chemistry).

It changes your mind

[[e-mail] · 10/10 · 6 February 2018]

In this enthralling, mesmeric thriller, Eric Lloyd gives one of the most disturbingly powerful screen performances that I have ever seen. There are huge parallels between Eric Lloyd's Phillip and Kevin Towers' Simon, in El Cuarto (the Fourth) 2008. But this film comes from the United States of America, and therefore serves as proof positive that the US has the capacity to deliver a tour-de-force piece of original art-in-film, something which it does all too seldom. Before the end of the film, I was beginning to think the way Phillip thinks, because this film shows that ten year old Phillip is a real person, not just an accessory or a Caricature. The subtlety with which Lloyd's Phillip bores into your psyche is matched by his mother's ( Deborah Kara Unger) subtle descent into madness. Welcome back to the disorientation of childhood.