I liked Sirens. While not the best film I ever saw, I thought it is good and entertaining. It's true that there are blood and revolting sexual imagery in it but it is a film focused on the investigation of a serial rapist. What kind of thinking or logic goes on in a rapist's mind? And what I liked the most about this movie is the psychological view. Who's more sick? Jay Pearson(Nardini)? She has problems. Emotional problems. Her relation with her work, with her boss and with her sister's boyfriend are proves of this. The boss is a pig, a "macho", another sick man who harass her. Her sister is a woman emotionally immature, needy, and desperate to be loved and wanted. And the good looking psychiatrist? He's in the center of all. He's inexpressive. Suspiciously inexpressive. And playing a double game. At the end we will know that he's a very mentally sick man. The one character that really touched my heart and emotions was Anthony Soames. Another seriously mentally and emotionally disturbed man who was screaming for help. And nobody helped him. Neither his wife nor his psychiatrist. His wife seemed blind and deaf to the obvious sickness of her husband. She never tried to approach him, to help him in anyway. There is a scene where they were in bed, he had "failed in his marital duties" -of course because of his sick sexual fantasies-, he sat on the border of the bed and looked up at her. She was absent, lighting a cigarette. Oh, how I wanted to kill her in that moment! And his psychiatrist? He didn't help. He was destroying Anthony transferring to him his own traumas. Anthony Soames was a victim. And he was destroyed. Very sad.
5 Reviews
A decent story badly handled
steeplechasing31 August 2009
Artistically shot but credibility sacrificed for the sake of some close-ups where the characters are unnaturally close - faces a couple of inches from each other when any natural instinct would be to withdraw to at least a couple of feet.
Abrasive DI and his boss, Struther, heavy stereotypes of 'hard-bitten' cops. A shrewd and apparently objective and experienced female cop, Nardini (don't get her supposed sexual magnetism at all - to me she looks like the Judy doll from Punch and Judy, all forehead, nose, cheeks and chin), falls for her sister's lover without any apparent reason. Another credibility stretcher.
All in all, a decent plot that could have been much better handled were it not for the over-writing and visually arty ambitions of the director.
Abrasive DI and his boss, Struther, heavy stereotypes of 'hard-bitten' cops. A shrewd and apparently objective and experienced female cop, Nardini (don't get her supposed sexual magnetism at all - to me she looks like the Judy doll from Punch and Judy, all forehead, nose, cheeks and chin), falls for her sister's lover without any apparent reason. Another credibility stretcher.
All in all, a decent plot that could have been much better handled were it not for the over-writing and visually arty ambitions of the director.
Blowing the whistle on gratuitous sadism
Philby-37 May 2002
This I am afraid to say is a very proficient and ultimately rather nasty piece of work. Daniela Nardini (sex on legs, as usual) plays a rather harassed CID officer involved in the investigation of a series of rapes, all conducted near London's Grand Union Canal. (The whole thing seems to have been filmed in Islington). As she follows up various leads, fending off her unpleasant supervisor's advances, she discovers that one of the suspects is uncomfortably close to home her doctor sister's ludicrously good-looking psychiatrist boyfriend, Oliver (Greg Wise). This man is so charming that Daniela (who no man can resist) goes to bed with him too.
There is plenty of suspense as the investigation proceeds and it becomes apparent that events many years before at Oxford medical school have a bearing on the case. The 'explanation' at the end beggars belief it's far too complicated and full of holes. It's just an excuse for putting poor Daniela through an experience no-one should be subject to cinematic sadism, in fact. She's a good actress and does what is asked of her, but the writers and producers are engaged in pure exploitation here. If you like watching a beautiful, sexy and personable woman suffer from rough treatment by men, this is your movie. Perhaps the explanation is in the title the mindset that blames women for being attractive to men, and punishes them accordingly when men succumb.
Actually it's a pity about the ending because the story is well paced and economically told over 150 minutes and there are good performances from Sarah Parish as the sister, Philip Glenister as Daniela's charmless boss and Greg Wise as Oliver the psychiatrist. The set decorators should be complemented as well on capturing the essence of Islington yuppiedom. There's not much sign of the 'London Marxist Borough' any more.
There is plenty of suspense as the investigation proceeds and it becomes apparent that events many years before at Oxford medical school have a bearing on the case. The 'explanation' at the end beggars belief it's far too complicated and full of holes. It's just an excuse for putting poor Daniela through an experience no-one should be subject to cinematic sadism, in fact. She's a good actress and does what is asked of her, but the writers and producers are engaged in pure exploitation here. If you like watching a beautiful, sexy and personable woman suffer from rough treatment by men, this is your movie. Perhaps the explanation is in the title the mindset that blames women for being attractive to men, and punishes them accordingly when men succumb.
Actually it's a pity about the ending because the story is well paced and economically told over 150 minutes and there are good performances from Sarah Parish as the sister, Philip Glenister as Daniela's charmless boss and Greg Wise as Oliver the psychiatrist. The set decorators should be complemented as well on capturing the essence of Islington yuppiedom. There's not much sign of the 'London Marxist Borough' any more.
What Everyone Else Said
jessepenitent19 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This was a simple minded excuse to string together lots of revolting sexual imagery and, oh yes, blood. Robert Glenister (sp?) delivers a great performance as the piggish department head. But the rest of it???? Let's see...plot twists so unbelievable as to make M. Night Shyamalan's works seem realistic and logical by comparison.
Characters who act in ways totally out of character because the plot needs them to do that.
A wrap up delivered second hand by the second male lead at the eleventh hour--just before the bad guy comes to "off" him and a scene that makes absolutely NO sense even when its reason for being there is explained...so that the heroine can hear on the phone--in the killer's presence--the truth of the matter.
For that matter, the second hand wrap up delivered by Glenister's character would be interesting if any clues had been planted for it...but there were NONE. Until the moment he gives up the explanation, we have not been given clue one to follow in what should be a play-fair mystery.
Film cuts that make sense only when you realize it's done to "fool" the audience (who is, one hopes, too smart to be fooled).
Actors without any kind of chemistry. No, I lie: GREAT chemistry between the heroine, such as she is, and the piggy boss. Now THAT would have been an interesting relationship to explore. Every time they got screaming at each other, I really did expect clothing to fly and there DID seem to be a spark there, despite her protests.
But the chilly, creepy Greg Wise??? Sure, he's pretty in the same way a wax statue is...maybe he's the Keanu Reeves of England? Charmingly wooden, but not much passion.
And, really, if there had been just ONE main character to like and sympathize with, I might have forgiven all of the above, but when the only likable characters are the red herring's snooty wife or the heroine's put-upon Pakistani assistant (a great acting job by the young lady whose name I don't remember)...well, then you are clearly watching it for the sex scenes. If that's the case, go rent a porn flick instead. If you want a mystery with lots of angles, great, whole characters and believable twists...just pick something at random off the rental shelf with your eyes closed and you are guaranteed to have a better movie.
Characters who act in ways totally out of character because the plot needs them to do that.
A wrap up delivered second hand by the second male lead at the eleventh hour--just before the bad guy comes to "off" him and a scene that makes absolutely NO sense even when its reason for being there is explained...so that the heroine can hear on the phone--in the killer's presence--the truth of the matter.
For that matter, the second hand wrap up delivered by Glenister's character would be interesting if any clues had been planted for it...but there were NONE. Until the moment he gives up the explanation, we have not been given clue one to follow in what should be a play-fair mystery.
Film cuts that make sense only when you realize it's done to "fool" the audience (who is, one hopes, too smart to be fooled).
Actors without any kind of chemistry. No, I lie: GREAT chemistry between the heroine, such as she is, and the piggy boss. Now THAT would have been an interesting relationship to explore. Every time they got screaming at each other, I really did expect clothing to fly and there DID seem to be a spark there, despite her protests.
But the chilly, creepy Greg Wise??? Sure, he's pretty in the same way a wax statue is...maybe he's the Keanu Reeves of England? Charmingly wooden, but not much passion.
And, really, if there had been just ONE main character to like and sympathize with, I might have forgiven all of the above, but when the only likable characters are the red herring's snooty wife or the heroine's put-upon Pakistani assistant (a great acting job by the young lady whose name I don't remember)...well, then you are clearly watching it for the sex scenes. If that's the case, go rent a porn flick instead. If you want a mystery with lots of angles, great, whole characters and believable twists...just pick something at random off the rental shelf with your eyes closed and you are guaranteed to have a better movie.
Hor-ri-ble!
lawnmorgan31 May 2021
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