Film Filter: Off- I had seen parts of this movie a long time ago and remember it being the first film in which I had seen Robert Downey Jr. I saw it on Netflix and thought it might be nice to have a refresher on it.
Pros: One of the things that I found very interesting with this film was the cinematography. There were many scenes that took place in a dream-like state in an orchard, and they did an excellent job of making the scenery have an eerie feel to it, but also a sense of wonderment and mystery.
This movie also has a lot of symbolic color to it, using red quite frequently. They even go as far as to name the character in peril "Ruby". Add that to the red hair of the antagonist, the red dress seen in the dreams, and the constant references to orchards and apples and you have an abundance of the rosy hue. I'm not sure what the direct relationship with red is in films with symbolism, other than the obvious representation of blood. There have been many films that have had this common theme, and not just gory ones. It could possibly represent control, as red is a majestic color and is also seen as a power color.
As I mentioned, this is the first film I had seen Robert Downey Jr. in (minus Weird Science...but who counts that one in his repertoire?) and I have to say I didn't have a great first impression. Not because of his acting ability, but because he creeped the hell out of me in this role. He plays a very mentally unstable adult who was clearly mistreated to a foul degree as a child. He seems to have issues identifying with his sexuality as a young boy, but seems to be pretty clever when it comes to escaping from and covering up his deviant activities. Overall, having now been able to compare his roles in various films from his career to this one, I have a much greater appreciation for him as an actor. I think the true testament of a good actor comes when/if they have to play a crazy person. To do the job justice takes an extreme amount of dedication and patience, but the outcome usually justifies the means, a la Heath Ledger.
Cons: Annette Bening? Yikes. There were about four times that I thought she did a good job in this film and that's saying something, as she was just about in every shot. I can't really put my finger on what was irksome about her performance, other than she seemed really inconsistent and illogical. You might be saying, "Well, she was crazy..." but that's the thing- she WASN'T! It was hard for me to take her seriously, even though I knew the whole time that she was sane.
The other incredibly frustrating part of this film comes on the behalf of the stupid-ass psychiatrist who was responsible for Annette Bening's well being. Maybe I'm just privileged from my experience with B.D. Wong as the Law & Order SVU psychiatrist, but there comes a point where you have to put the "my patient is a nut job" aside and actually look for validation in their story...especially if they have had not past of mental illness. The fact that she was spouting off information about the killer and predicting her own husband's death seemed to not matter to the psychiatrist, and it wasn't until a few days later that any of her story was looked into. Someone should revoke his license.
And lastly and MOST frustrating(...ly?) was the unexplained connection between Claire Cooper's (Bening) brain and Vivian Thompson's (Downey). Anyone? Nothing. There was one shot where it almost alluded the link to the fact that she wrote children's stories, but nothing more was brought up on it. I'm all for supernatural connections between murderers and victims, but please have it be rational.
Wrap up- This movie is a tough one to peg. What it lacks in characterization and explanation, it almost makes up for with creativity and cinematography. Almost. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone mainly because it lacks focus.
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