An average movie

Recently, one of my list called 'Interesting Failures' was promoted and I can't help thinking that this movie should be added to it. Indeed, it is basically a perfect candidate since I was really entertained throughout the whole thing but the ending was unfortunately rather underwhelming. Indeed, Mark Pellington, a rather obscure director who never really managed to develop the potential displayed in this movie, created a mesmerizing and tense mood. Furthermore, there was a top cast (Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, Hope Davis) and they all gave some really solid performances. Unfortunately, even though this movie showed some interesting ideas about psychology and paranoia, unfortunately, since we are dealing with a US thriller, they had to add a really far-fetched twist ending which pretty much ruined the whole thing. This movie was also made just before the current wave of terrorism and, nowadays, we are more paranoid than ever concerning any kind of impending terrorist attact so this flick was actually quite prescient (in the same trend, you have 'A Siege', a movie which pretty much predicted EXACTLY what would happen but it was also ruined by a sappy ending). To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it remains a very well made and entertaining thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

6/10