Wow, this movie is about as terrible as it gets. I could go on and on about why, but in the interests of wasting as little of your time on this film as possible, I will pinpoint the primary couple of reasons:
Firstly, Erika Christensen's acting is as bad as I have seen. It is to the extent it became extremely aggravating every time she was on screen. She was totally unconvincing and very, very poorly casted. Yes, she didn't have much to work with but what she did have she butchered about as badly as the kidnapped prisoner laying in her character's basement.
Secondly, the style of this movie just doesn't work. Firstly, the story starts post-kidnapping and thus no emotional connection is able to be made with the main characters. What precious little time there is to build an emotional connection before the torturing begins is ruined by crass, predictable and poorly executed flashbacks. It all feels very hollow then and you feel as if they may as well have started the movie 35 minutes in when the torturing began.
Lastly, as an editor I don't like Lieberman's creative decisions in this movie. The colouring does not work for me and makes the movie appear blander than it already is. His camera angles are very poor too - all the shots appear overly zoomed in and it comes across as a bit of a mess and serves to disengage me even further. This could be a personal preference though.
All in all, don't watch. Even if you're into torture movies, this film still won't hold your attention.
Firstly, Erika Christensen's acting is as bad as I have seen. It is to the extent it became extremely aggravating every time she was on screen. She was totally unconvincing and very, very poorly casted. Yes, she didn't have much to work with but what she did have she butchered about as badly as the kidnapped prisoner laying in her character's basement.
Secondly, the style of this movie just doesn't work. Firstly, the story starts post-kidnapping and thus no emotional connection is able to be made with the main characters. What precious little time there is to build an emotional connection before the torturing begins is ruined by crass, predictable and poorly executed flashbacks. It all feels very hollow then and you feel as if they may as well have started the movie 35 minutes in when the torturing began.
Lastly, as an editor I don't like Lieberman's creative decisions in this movie. The colouring does not work for me and makes the movie appear blander than it already is. His camera angles are very poor too - all the shots appear overly zoomed in and it comes across as a bit of a mess and serves to disengage me even further. This could be a personal preference though.
All in all, don't watch. Even if you're into torture movies, this film still won't hold your attention.