Hey, you all! After a
refreshing spring break, we're back in college, probably counting down
the days till the end of the spring semester. I hope you all had a great
time during the past holiday, just like I did.
Since my break took place far away from here, and I wasn't able to see
any new movies during that time, I'm going to talk about a disappointing
film that I saw before the holiday. I need to warn you about this film,
because it's still showing at cinemas across Turkey.
Although the movie brings together well-known actors and actresses, it
can't seem to go beyond being an ordinary Hollywood production. At the
beginning, I thought I'd be interested in the characters all the way to
the end. However, it turned out to be a clichéd story, where you can
easily guess what's going to happen next.
"Hide and Seek" is a new film from John Polson. The main roles are
played by Robert De Niro, Famke Janssen, Dakota Fanning and Elisabeth
Shue. Emily (Fanning) is a little girl who feels severely depressed
after her mother's suicide. Her father David (De Niro) searches for ways
to help her get over her grief. Finally, he decides to move to an ideal
new home in the woods. This is a cliché setup for a horror film, because
the house has lots of attics and basements and crannies and staircases.
Moreover, the house is near a lake that is, according to local people,
extremely quiet in the wintertime. What a coincidence that it's
wintertime--quite enough to make you feel that something bad is going to
happen.
Throughout the movie, you'll notice that there are many extra characters
who seem to hang around a lot. For instance, the neighbors and the
sheriff are always creating this atmosphere of anxiety and suspicion
through their behavior. However, it's clear that there's either
something wrong with Emily or something extraordinary going on.
For a certain period of time, the movie proceeds to convince the
audience that Emily has something on her mind, since she draws what she
feels and sees. Each time you wonder what she wants to tell us, but this
goes on only for the first half. Unfortunately, in the middle of the
second half, all the mystery turns into clear identification of who is
who. From that moment on, you simply sit in your seat and wait for the
movie to end. That's why "Hide and Seek" turns out to be almost two
hours' worth of dissatisfaction.
Beyond the problems with the plot, the scenes where Dakota is drawing
are really funny, because she's at least 10 years old, too big to be
drawing matchstick men. The drawings were so stupid that the most
appropriate thing would be to use them in one of the "Scary Movie"
series as satire (if you know what I mean!).
All in all, "Hide and Seek" offers the audience very little
satisfaction. There are various gaps in the story--the film is really
just a bunch of inefficient scenes that have been put together.
See you around! Have fun and don't play hide and seek!
Rating:
Atilla Karakurum (IE/IV)
atilla_karakurum@yahoo.com
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