An average movie

At last, I finally watched this flick! I thought I had the DVD for a long time but I didn't expect it would take me more than 2 years(!) to finally watch it. I don't know, I guess I kept pushing it back but since Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore were involved, I still wanted to check it out. Eventually, I was at first positively surprised. Indeed, in my opinion, the first half was actually pretty good. The built up was pretty strong and I really believed in this neighborhood and how the various conflicts were constructed. Of course, I'm always cautious with American thrillers since they are usually pretty good in setting up the whole thing but, usually, completely disappoint me with their far-fetched ending. This time, it started to go down when they added this searching party and this Freedomland places. I mean, up to that point, the whole thing was really intriguing but the makers decided to throw those elements in the mix but they didn't work at all with the rest. From there, the story jumped from one thing to another, without making much sense story-wise, and I kind of lost interest in the whole thing. Apparently, Michael Winterbottom, one very intriguing director and probably the biggest workaholic in the business, was the original director and did extensive work before leaving this project and I really wonder what was his take on this story but I guess we'll never know. Still, in spite of these flaws, it is still a rather intriguing thriller and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

6/10