This film had so much potential - a good premise, great actors, a decent budget, but it fails because of the script.
The film is not sure what it wants to be - horror? comedy? drama? romance? It tries to do it all and doesn't do any of them well. It fails completely in that regard.
The film could've shown how society is becoming more and more isolated, people working jobs in cubicles to go home to their tiny box apartments with their potted plants and their pets, but the film skims through that issue rather than drive it home. Lisa made a comment that she could disappear and no one would know, but it was an off-hand comment that was not explored further.
The film could've spent more time exploring this existential crisis rather than have a man arguing with a doll. Show Lisa as a loner too, a sad cat lady. Show Kenneth as someone who becomes more and more lonely as his gamer friends move away in pursuit of jobs/money, leaving his only contact with them is through online gaming. Show how both Kenneth and Lisa get birthday or Christmas calls on their answering machines from their parents. Show them eating lunch alone in their cubicles.
Make it sad. Make it depressing, psychological, so that when Kenneth starts arguing with the doll, he has been pushed to the limit and has lost touch with reality rather than he's playing a role-playing game.
Make it more psychological. The turning point in the film was when Lisa discovers a photo of the doll wearing her clothes. It's too cheap. Make it something more subtle, such as Kenneth becoming more aggravated as Lisa is a real human being with flaws. She menstruates, she snores, she has to shave her legs, she's not always in the mood for sex, etc. Make her moody, depressive, suicidal even. Make it human vs doll, reality vs fantasy. That's where the turning point should be. Make Kenneth become irritated and irritable to the point where she leaves him.
This movie goes for cheap shortcuts rather than build-up and payoff - Lisa learns about the doll, the building super walks into the room and gets killed, etc.
Instead of being deep, disturbing, philosophical, existential, psychological and depressing, it ends up being cheesy - cubicle worker buys doll, dates cubicle girl, she learns about doll, things goes bad, he kills cubicle girl (indirectly, but still).
I can't recommend it to anyone, but it has the potential for a remake if done right.
The film is not sure what it wants to be - horror? comedy? drama? romance? It tries to do it all and doesn't do any of them well. It fails completely in that regard.
The film could've shown how society is becoming more and more isolated, people working jobs in cubicles to go home to their tiny box apartments with their potted plants and their pets, but the film skims through that issue rather than drive it home. Lisa made a comment that she could disappear and no one would know, but it was an off-hand comment that was not explored further.
The film could've spent more time exploring this existential crisis rather than have a man arguing with a doll. Show Lisa as a loner too, a sad cat lady. Show Kenneth as someone who becomes more and more lonely as his gamer friends move away in pursuit of jobs/money, leaving his only contact with them is through online gaming. Show how both Kenneth and Lisa get birthday or Christmas calls on their answering machines from their parents. Show them eating lunch alone in their cubicles.
Make it sad. Make it depressing, psychological, so that when Kenneth starts arguing with the doll, he has been pushed to the limit and has lost touch with reality rather than he's playing a role-playing game.
Make it more psychological. The turning point in the film was when Lisa discovers a photo of the doll wearing her clothes. It's too cheap. Make it something more subtle, such as Kenneth becoming more aggravated as Lisa is a real human being with flaws. She menstruates, she snores, she has to shave her legs, she's not always in the mood for sex, etc. Make her moody, depressive, suicidal even. Make it human vs doll, reality vs fantasy. That's where the turning point should be. Make Kenneth become irritated and irritable to the point where she leaves him.
This movie goes for cheap shortcuts rather than build-up and payoff - Lisa learns about the doll, the building super walks into the room and gets killed, etc.
Instead of being deep, disturbing, philosophical, existential, psychological and depressing, it ends up being cheesy - cubicle worker buys doll, dates cubicle girl, she learns about doll, things goes bad, he kills cubicle girl (indirectly, but still).
I can't recommend it to anyone, but it has the potential for a remake if done right.