Amnesia
"Blind Horizon" directed by Michael Haussman was shown on cable the
other night. The cast assembled seemed interesting, so we decided to take a chance with it. There are a lot of ideas behind the plot, which reminded this viewer about the Kennedy assassination in Dallas in 1963, but this story is not fully realized. The problem basically resides with the screen play. It is not too well constructed, as we figure what is coming before it happens. The amnesia plot is something that has been done ad nauseam and adds nothing to this movie. Val Kilmer's character is an enigma from beginning to end. Neve Campbell's Chloe doesn't have anything in common with Frank; no chemistry whatsoever. Also, Faye Dunnaway is shown mumbling her lines most of the time. Amy Smart and Sam Shepard don't have great opportunities to shine.. A Mess
I could go on about the plot holes and inexplicable missing elements
(like main character motivations!), the thin characters with no real opportunity to develop, a musical score that is off base it is almost funny, and finally a director who clearly is out of his element when not doing music videos. Note to the director: Scenes, camera movement, and music are supposed to serve the story not become the story. From reading the comments it looks like the original script had promise (I would say the ideas are interesting and might explain how they were able to attract some name actors) but the leadership of the film obviously did not have any real vision on how to bring all the elements together. An example of a real bad choice would be the constant use of Middle Eastern influenced vocalizations in a movie that is supposed to be set in Southern New Mexico. Now that is not to put down the actual music, as it is really pretty good own it's on. It just seems to me nobody was questioning the direction of the musical choices. For me this is a failure by the director. In every major element of the film; from editing, the character choices made by the actors, the score, and the cinematography it is like they all were trying to do there own thing. No one seemed to be insuring that all the oars were rowing in the same direction.. |
Trailers: |
