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Gone (2012)
Amanda Seyfried.
Carnival rides make me nauseated. Alcohol makes me morose. Firecrackers hurt my ears. Movie thrillers cause me stress. None of these delivers a pleasant experience and I don’t willingly dive into any of them. Except the alcohol; I kind of like being morose.
With rare exception, thrillers just don’t pay off. The stress they cause me is never justified by an end that makes it worth it, and unless my brain is adequately engaged in some new way, I have no use for them. I suppose cynics would say the same is true of romantic comedies, a genre I like, but we’re talking about a different set of emotions here, a much nicer, warmer palette of colors. Thrillers cause me too much discomfort and the resolutions are seldom satisfying.
For these reasons, when Gone, starring Amanda Seyfried as Jill Conway, hit theaters, I stopped to admire the movie poster ten times but was only minimally tempted to see it. A one-dollar DVD rental, however, was a different story. I like the actress, love her large eyes and non-Hollywood kind of prettiness, and if the film sucked too hard I could just turn off the DVD player and I’d be out only a buck.
It doesn’t suck. But it tries to suck. It’s got an interesting setup: Jill has survived being kidnapped by a serial killer, and she hasn’t been able to back up any of her story with any evidence, so the local police think she’s making it up. When her sister Molly goes uncharacteristically missing with no explanation, Jill is sure her kidnapper has taken Molly in order to lure Jill into another kidnapping so he can finish the job. Jill tracks Molly’s abductor while evading the police, who at first are skeptical that there’s any foul play involved but want to keep Jill out of the way of their investigation just in case.
Seyfried is capable of carrying a movie, something I haven’t really seen her get a chance to do until now, and I admit I was pretty engaged through most of it. The problem is just what the problem always seems to be: the payoff is completely unsatisfying, and despite the main character’s smarts, the plot gets dumber and dumber with each scene in the third act. And this is what I seem always to experience in movie thrillers. Fans of the genre, being used to the format, I suppose, might enjoy this, but I was pretty annoyed. I was pleased to see Michael Pare as a sympathetic police lieutenant, but even that thrill fails to make this a good movie.
4/10 (IMDb rating)
40/100 (Criticker rating)
Amanda Seyfried.
Carnival rides make me nauseated. Alcohol makes me morose. Firecrackers hurt my ears. Movie thrillers cause me stress. None of these delivers a pleasant experience and I don’t willingly dive into any of them. Except the alcohol; I kind of like being morose.
With rare exception, thrillers just don’t pay off. The stress they cause me is never justified by an end that makes it worth it, and unless my brain is adequately engaged in some new way, I have no use for them. I suppose cynics would say the same is true of romantic comedies, a genre I like, but we’re talking about a different set of emotions here, a much nicer, warmer palette of colors. Thrillers cause me too much discomfort and the resolutions are seldom satisfying.
For these reasons, when Gone, starring Amanda Seyfried as Jill Conway, hit theaters, I stopped to admire the movie poster ten times but was only minimally tempted to see it. A one-dollar DVD rental, however, was a different story. I like the actress, love her large eyes and non-Hollywood kind of prettiness, and if the film sucked too hard I could just turn off the DVD player and I’d be out only a buck.
It doesn’t suck. But it tries to suck. It’s got an interesting setup: Jill has survived being kidnapped by a serial killer, and she hasn’t been able to back up any of her story with any evidence, so the local police think she’s making it up. When her sister Molly goes uncharacteristically missing with no explanation, Jill is sure her kidnapper has taken Molly in order to lure Jill into another kidnapping so he can finish the job. Jill tracks Molly’s abductor while evading the police, who at first are skeptical that there’s any foul play involved but want to keep Jill out of the way of their investigation just in case.
Seyfried is capable of carrying a movie, something I haven’t really seen her get a chance to do until now, and I admit I was pretty engaged through most of it. The problem is just what the problem always seems to be: the payoff is completely unsatisfying, and despite the main character’s smarts, the plot gets dumber and dumber with each scene in the third act. And this is what I seem always to experience in movie thrillers. Fans of the genre, being used to the format, I suppose, might enjoy this, but I was pretty annoyed. I was pleased to see Michael Pare as a sympathetic police lieutenant, but even that thrill fails to make this a good movie.
4/10 (IMDb rating)
40/100 (Criticker rating)