Author: Natalie Teasdale

I want to share with other movie fans those amazing films that get under your skin and stay with you for days: the scary ones, the funny ones; the ones that get you thinking. With a background in creative writing, photography, psychology and neuroscience, I’ll be focusing on dialogue, what makes a great story, if the film has beautiful creative cinematography, the soundtrack and any movie that successfully scratches the surface of our existence. My aim is to always be searching for that ultimate movie, to share what I’ve found to be interesting (whether it be a great soundtrack, a great director or links to other information of interest) and to give an honest review without too much fluff. BAppSci in Psychology/Psychophysiology; Grad Dip Creative Arts and Post Grad Dip in Creative Writing. Founder of GoMovieReviews.

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu

Rated: PG

Directed by: Rob Letterman

Story by: Dan Hernandez & Benji Samit and Nicole Perlman

Screenplay by: Dan Hernandez & Benji Samit and Rob Letterman and Derek Connolly

Based on: the “Detective Pikachu” video game developed by Creatures Inc.

Produced by: Mary Parent and Cale Boyter

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Geere, Rita Ora, Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy.

Based on the worldwide phenomenon of, Pokémon and video game, “Detective Pikachu”, this film literally features the beloved Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds) wearing a detective hat.

Tim Goodman (Justice Smith, whom you’ll remember from, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)) lost his ambition to become a Pokémon Trainer when his mother died and his father, Detective Harry Goodman, moved away to Ryme City; a place where Howard Clifford (Bill Nighy) has created a city, not just with Pokémon living in it, but with humans and Pokémon working and living, side-by-side.

After finding out his father has gone missing, Tim travels to Ryme City to discover there’s more to his father’s past than he realised.

Junior journalist, Lucy (Kathryn Newton), with a nose for a good story, seeks the answers to Detective Goodman’s disappearance, only to find Tim without a Pokémon partner – ‘Why does everyone keep asking me that!’.

When a Pikachu appears in his father’s apartment, instead of the characteristic Pokémon stating their own name, like, “Psy-Duck. PSY-Duck?” Or in this case, “Pika Pika” – Tim can understand this mysterious Pikachu: this little guy is talkative, coffee addicted and a self-proclaimed detective.

So the somewhat lonely 21-year-old (not so much with Pikachu dancing on this shoulder), nosey journalist and talkative Pokémon investigate the mystery surrounding Tim’s father.

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu is a combination of animated puppets and live actors – the Pokémon critters brought to life so you just want to reach out and give Pikachu’s fur a scratch, setting his back-leg twitching.

The kids in the audience, ooo’d and ahh’d, particularly at the beginning and introduction into the world of Pokémon (and before the action ramped up): this is a kid movie.

I don’t know why I expected the humour to be more adult. Probably because Ryan Reynolds does the voice-over of Pikachu. And although the script doesn’t have that edgy satire I’ve grown used to from Reynold’s characters, this is brilliant casting as he voices some genuinely funny moments like Pikachu making decisions based on ‘feeling it in his jellies.’

There are many amusing moments like the Cubone baby with the bad temper reminding Tim’s best mate Jake (Karan Soni) – would have like more of this character in the film – of his mother. But the jokes were more of the PG variety: cute and sweet.

The action and effects ramp-up as the story progresses, giving the film some suspense and creating some drama with the hope Pikachu and his human, Tim, make it out of yet another scape. And we get the conflict between Tim and his father with the breakdown of their relationship after his mother died, and of course the romance between the two human investigators.

So, not the edgy clever I was hoping for, but we get the expected cuteness with some good laughs and action along the way.

Top End Wedding

Rated: M

Directed by: Wayne Blair

Written by: Joshua Tyler and Miranda Tapsell

Based on a Concept by: Miranda Tapsell, Joshua Tyler and Glen Condie

Produced by: Rosemary Blight, Kylie du Fresne, Kate Croser

Starring: Miranda Tapsell, Gwilym Lee, Kerry Fox and Huw Higginson.

I feel like I’m glowing after watching Top End Wedding – a blushing bride?! No, but when director Wayne Blair introduced the film he, said, ‘This is good energy.’

And I’ve got to say, I feel it.

Top End Wedding is a warm-hearted, funny movie about Lauren (Miranda Tapsell) who’s just made Associate at her law firm in Adelaide and Ned (Gwilym Lee), also a lawyer, but quits his job when he decides it’s wrong to indict a woman for stealing incontinence pads. And then offers her a tissue as she cries on the stand. Not for her incontinence but for her tears.

When Ned proposes, Lauren whole-heartedly says yes.

With only eleven days leave given by her ball-breaking, super-organised boss, Hampton (Kerry Fox), Lauren decides she wants to get married in Darwin. Her home town. Where her parents still live.

When Ned and Lauren arrive, they find:

Mum (Daffy, played by Ursula Yovich) has gone missing, leaving;

Dad (Trevor, played by Huw Higginson) a wreck and crying and hiding in the pantry, listening to music where eventually he says, ‘I can’t listen to anymore 80s chick music.’

Ned and Lauren’s relationship gets tested as the pressure of the wedding and family weighs on their shoulders. Yet, in the end. It’s all about coming home.

I didn’t expect to enjoy this film as much as I did. And writer and lead Miranda Tapsell had a lot to do with the warmth and beauty of this story.

Producer, Rosemary Blight tells of Miranda wanting to do a romantic comedy: ‘I thought there’d be a whole lot more after The Sapphires and there’d be these feisty, funny Aboriginal screenplays. It didn’t happen. So I wrote it myself.’

There’s a great partnership here, between Miranda and director, Wayne Blair, both previous collaborators on the highly successful, The Sapphires (2012). All the parts work so well.

Top End Wedding feels like a down-to-earth film but there’s a lot of sophistication going here with the timing and segue of scenes and details like all the many different tribes of Aboriginals shown on a map of Australia as the couple travel across the country.

There’s beautiful scenery shot from: Darwin to Kakadu National Park, Katherine, Nitmiluk National Park also including the people of the Tiwi Islands dancing and singing, welcoming the audience into their world, onto their land.

And the soundtrack invites you in, the score from Antony Partos using the ukulele, mandolin and acoustic guitar, and pitched down acoustic guitar so it feels like you’ve been invited to sit around a camp fire.

But it’s the humour that got me – where a lump of sugar is dropped in a cup of tea despite the indecisiveness of an Englishman: do I or don’t I want that lump of sugar? Drop.

The bumbling Brit does OK: there’s nothing wrong with his ‘gum nuts’.

One of my favourite scenes is the golden light held in the air of a white wooden hall, ceiling fans slowly rotating high overhead as an 80s love song plays by a boy she hasn’t met, yet…

See, GLOWING.

What a gorgeous film. Loved it.

Long Shot

Rated: M

Directed by: Jonathan Levine

Screenplay by: Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah

Story by: Dan Sterling

Produced by: Charlize Theron, p.g.a., A.J. Dix, p.g.a., Beth Kono, p.g.a., Evan Goldberg, p.g.a., Seth Rogen, p.g.a., James Weaver, p.g.a.

Starring: Charlize Theron, Seth Rogen, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Andy Serkis, June Diane Raphael, with Bob Odenkirk, and Alexander Skarsgård.

Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) has been in love with Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) since he was twelve years old.

Before she was Secretary of State, Charlotte was Fred Flarsky’s baby sitter.

They’ve both grown up since Charlotte wanted to save the planet and become School President; now, she’s campaigning to save the planet and become President of the United States.

Fred, with his gonzo journalistic style has just lost his job. He needs cheering up. Best friend Lance (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) knows what he needs: a classy cocktail party featuring Boys To Men as the entertainment.

Suited-up in teal windbreaker (that he seems to have an attachment to) and tapered cargo pants, Fred happens to meet up with his crush, the now beautiful and powerful Charlotte.

She remembers him. She likes his writing. She decides (against the opinion of her Chief of Staff, Maggi (June Diane Raphael)) to hire Fred as her speech writer.

Long Shot is a rom-com so of course it’s the unlikely couple who fall for each other – the difference in this rom-com, the odd-couple fall for each other while on the campaign trail.

There’s this mix of Charlotte living the high life as a politician and the comedy of Seth Rogan as Fred, the goofy but still witty guy able to write a good speech while reminding Charlotte of her young self: the idealist.

‘I am not nuking a tsunami,’ she states.

Most of the time, the film’s a silly bit of fluff.

There’s some classic comedy with Fred wearing an outfit that looks like, ‘Captain Crunch’s Grindr date.’ But then the film gets romantic, the shift from comedy to romance obvious when the soundtrack starts with, ‘One way. Or another. I’m gonna git ya, git, ya, git, ya…’

It didn’t quite gel right for me.

Charlize Theron as Charlotte is gorgeous in this film – her allure, as always, cool and controlled.

Sure, Fred breaks down this barrier as part of the romance, getting the Secretary of State to chill out, get wasted and fall in love.

And we get an appearance from Alexander Skarsgård (I’m really becoming a fan of this guy) showing his comic genius as the Canadian Prime Minister.

But the mix of romance and politics wasn’t always a success.

Avengers: Endgame

Rated: M

Directed by: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Screenplay by: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely

Based on: ‘The Avengers’ by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

Produced by: Kevin Feige

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Bradley Cooper and Josh Brolin.

Running time: 181 minutes.

Now we can talk about the ending of Avengers: Infinity War (2018), we’re left with half of all living creatures still here, and the other half disintegrated into ash and gone… With the snap of Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) fingers.

Thanos believed the ones left would thrive. The ones left did not. They could remember. They could grieve.

Endgame (Anthony and Joe Russo returning to direct this final instalment) is a last stand. Again.

Like the fans walking out of the cinema after watching Infinity War, the Avengers left refuse to accept that the ones they love have gone.

It’s an emotive adaptation.

And one that cuts close with the recent loss of creator, Stan Lee.

So the final instalment and conclusion has an added echo, almost from the man himself (cameo included – peace to you too, Stan).

There are so many characters here, that without a bit of background, the final instalment wouldn’t pack the same punch without some prior knowledge. Particularly the previous film (part-one), Infinity War.

I admit I haven’t gotten around to seeing Captain Marvel (2019), but I was able to take this new character, Carol Danvers (Lee Pace) along with the rest of the Avengers story.

But yeah, it’s emotional with Natalie AKA Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) telling Captain America (Chris Evans), ‘This’ll work Steve.’

The Cap replying, ‘I know it will because I don’t know what I’ll do if it doesn’t.’

Even though I’m not a huge fan it’s hard not to get attached to at least some of the characters – hey, there’s enough of them.

Yet the number of characters is handled well – like all the Avenger films.

It’s a long journey (181 minutes), but it’s worthwhile with the action ramping up later in the film to match the emotion of the drama.

I was more impressed with the risk and shock of part-one, Infinity War – the franchise needing a good shake-up.

Here, it’s more about tying off the threads of lines that were left to unravel, to come full circle giving the audience a life-affirming conclusion, a softer landing, I guess: a little like landing on Thors’ new, well-padded belly.

Missing Link

Rated: PG

Directed by: Chris Butler.

Screenplay by: Chris Butler

Produced by: Arianne Sutner, p.g.a., Travis Knight, p.g.a.

Voices by: Hugh Jackman, David Walliams, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas, Zach Galifianakis, Timothy Olyphant, Zoe Saldana, Amrita Acharia, Ching Valdes-Aran, Emma Thompson.

Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman) is a seeker of mythical beasts. All he wants in life is to be accepted into the Optimates Club – a society where he feels he belongs, working alongside those who discover and shape the world.

But really, it’s the ‘world that shapes us,’ Sir Lionel discovers, going on to say, ‘Someone should write that down.’ Ha-ha, I laugh, while writing the quote in my trusty notebook.

This is an amusing tale, from a giant footprint to a man-sized shoeprint, Sir Frost’s quest takes him on a journey to find the one who made that giant footprint, making a wager with Lord Piggot-Dunceby (Stephen Fry) that he’ll prove the existence of the sasquatch (Zach Galifianakis), to find the missing link of the evolution of ape to man.

If Sir Frost wins the wager and can prove the existence of the sasquatch, Lord Piggot-Dunceby agrees to apologise for his disbelief and Sir Frost would finally be accepted into the club of Most Notable Men.

The film is made using stop-animation, explained in the production notes as, ‘The manipulation of physical objects in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they appear to exhibit independent motion when played back in sequence. In practice, the animator moves the object, takes a picture, moves the object, takes a picture, and so on.’

The characters, puppets made from 3D printers and foam and any number of techniques, are exaggerated to give the puppets’ faces personality like the hooked nose of villain, Stenk (Timothy Olyphant) hired to take Sir Frost out of the exploring game and the apelike countenance of Mr Link used to off-set the human characteristics of being able to write and speak English.

The LAIKA animators photographed the stop-motion puppets 24 frames per second, turning the inanimate into characters with emotion – the exasperation of side-kick Mr. Lemuel Lint (David Walliams) shown in the half-lidded blink of an eye before getting, ‘mauled by a lake-monster’; Nessie coaxed out of hiding by a blast of bagpipes.

The humour of the taking-everything-literally, Mr Link didn’t always hit the mark for me. But as the film continued, the story and setting of the journey of Mr Link and Sir Frost, seeking others of the sasquatch kind – like the Yeti – evolved (ha-ha) with the addition of widow and once close acquaintance of Sir Frost, the fiery Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana).

On the journey to Tibet to find Mr. Link’s distant cousins (the Yetis) we get Mr. Link naming himself Susan and mimicking a chicken who cannot be acknowledged, tickling as a granny Tibetan gesticulates with the demented chook perched on her head: hilarious.

Being a family film, I took my nephew along to enjoy together and to see if he liked the film – my nephew claiming the film deserved a 4.1/5.

Watching as an adult, I found plenty of humour to enjoy as well, thinking more 3.5, so I’m a splitting the difference and giving Missing Link, 3.7/5.

The Hummingbird Project

Rated: M

Directed by: Kim Nguyen

Written by: Kim Nguyen

Produced by: Pierre Even, Jérôme de Béthune, Fabrice Delville, Alian-Gilles Viellevoye

Starring: Salma Hayek, Jesse Eisenberg and Alexander Skarsgård.

The film is named, The Hummingbird Project because the beat of a hummingbird’s wing takes less than sixteen milliseconds – the time barrier Vincent Zaleski (Jesse Eisenberg) and cousin Anton Zaleski (Alexander Skarsgård) want to break by building a fibre line from the Kansas City Internet Exchange to the New York Stock Exchange.

If they can transfer data faster than the sixteen-millisecond barrier, they can trade faster than anyone else, making millions, even billions of dollars.

The only problem is that the line needs financial backing and the line needs to be built straight one thousand miles: under 10,000 private properties, under rivers, even through a mountain made of granite located in a protected state forest.

The project is a massive undertaking with all the issues that go along with making the seemingly impossible, possible by throwing millions of dollars and brain power at any obstacle. Including ex-boss, Wall Street CEO, Eva Torres (Salma Hayek) who doesn’t like betrayal (the cousins quitting and taking their idea with them) from Anton, the technical genius she cared for, who’s obviously on the spectrum and Vince, the cousin she hired so Anton could have a pet.

She has her own project.

Vince and Anton must beat their vengeful ex-boss and her line of microwave towers otherwise the fibre line becomes pointless.

It’s a David and Goliath fight to the finish with pipeline engineer Mark Vega (Michael Mando) asking Vince, ‘We’re David?’ To him it sounds like Goliath against Goliath.

The film is based on the true story Michael Lewis published, Flash Boys (2014): the fight between Spread Networks, which built an 827-mile fibre cable from Chicago to New York, and a line of microwave towers.

An idea so crazy it’s got to be true (as they say).

There’s something satisfying in seeing a large project come together – the technically savvy Anton great fun to watch; he’s the genius coder who just wants to buy a country house for his family to get away from people, AKA ‘morons’.

Alexander Skarsgård shows his versatility in the role of a receding programming nerd, the character’s single-mindedness, hilarious – although the dance scene I’m pretty sure was a copy of Tom Cruise in his role as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder (2008).

All the roles were well-cast, Salma Hayek showing real bite as the powerful CEO and financial guru – she’s just as good at her job as the geniuses she hires to work for her.

And there’s more to the story than data transfer, problem solving and making money – this is a life-defining project for Vince. This is about the mystery of life and what he’ll find at the end.

I enjoyed watching this film on many levels. And it looks good on the big screen, with falling snow, frozen in time; walking over a forest of pine trees like they’re moss covering the ground as thought rises above the project of building this line and seeing the idea and drive to finish as more than the project itself.

An intelligent film with a bit humanity thrown in the mix.

The Chaperone

Rated: PG

Directed by: Michael Engler

Script Written by: Julian Fellowes

Based on the Novel by: Laura Moriarty

Produced by: Greg Clark, Victoria Hill, Luca Scalisi, Rose Ganguzza, Kelly Carmichael, Greg Hamilton

Starring: Elizabeth McGovern, Haley Lu Richardson, Géza Röhrig, Campbell Scott, Victoria Hill, Miranda Otto, Robert Fairchild, Matt McGrath, Blythe Danner, Jayne Houdyshell and Jonathan Walker.

‘What do you want to be Louise?’

‘To be the best dancer in the world.’

The Chaperone explores the story of the silent film super-star, Louise Brooks.

I think just about everyone would recognise her flapper style and short dark bob.

After her dancing and acting career faded and failed, Louise Brooks disappeared from the spotlight, only to re-invent herself and remerge as the best-selling author of her biography, Lulu in Hollywood (1982).

She writes of her life in New York, mentioning a middle-aged chaperone who escorted her when she first arrived.

No-one knows who this chaperone was.

Laura Moriarty has written a novel exploring the idea of the character, The Chaperone. And a script was written, reuniting the director, writer and star from the multi-award winning TV series, Downton Abby.

Set in the 1920s, we see Louise as a young girl living in Wichita, Kansas.

At fifteen, Louise is accepted into a dance academy in New York.

Her mother (Victoria Hill) too busy with her own pursuits doesn’t have time to take her.

And young girl can’t go to New York on her own.

When Norma (Elizabeth McGovern) sees Louise dance after over-hearing the need of a chaperone, she volunteers.

The main focus of the film is on Norma – her escape from a stale marriage and her need to find her birth mother: ‘I love you, I really do,’ her husband tells her as she leaves. ‘That’s nice,’ she replies.

Norma was an orphan. And the orphanage she grew up in is in New York, unfortunately named: The New York Home for Friendless Girls.

Haley Lu Richardson as Louise is full of life and rebellion and fun, whereas Elizabeth McGovern as Norma plays the prudish and sincere lady. This contrast between the two is where the film develops – the life lessons learned from the other as each character struggles to find themselves.

What I found difficult to digest was Norma trying to deviate from her character, to be seductive, even if it was fake.

The romance between the chaperone and German immigrant, Joseph (Géza Röhrig) felt forced and strained. Much like the attempt to introduce the need of forward-thinking regarding issues of racism and homosexuality

What I enjoyed was seeing Louise dance and her struggles to be independent. And although, annoying and precocious, there’s something exciting about the gifted girl that made me want to know more.

Instead, we get the struggles of the chaperone and the lessons she learns from the young and free dancer.

Which didn’t make a bad film – although, that seduction scene was pretty bad – but more a period drama. And like Louise says, ‘I don’t like historical novels.’

And I don’t like watered-down versions of an imagined biography.

Gloria Bell

Rated: M

Director: Sebastián Lelio

Story by: Gonzalo Maza

Screenplay by: Alice Johnson Boher, Sebastián Lelio

Produced by: Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Sebastián Lello

Starring: Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Michael Cera, Brad Garrett, Sean Astin, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Rita Wilson.

‘When the world ends, I hope I go down dancing.’

Gloria Bell (Juilanne Moore) is divorced with two grown children, Peter (Michael Cera) and Anne (Caren Pistorius).

She likes to go out dancing, disco dancing; she sings while driving her car; she worries about her son and grandchild, left by a partner who’s gone to find herself.

Everyone around her is struggling with something in their lives: work-buddy Melinda (Barbara Sukowa) realising she hasn’t saved enough money to retire, an upstairs neighbour having a breakdown, yelling incoherently. But Gloria dances.

When she meets Arnold (John Turturro) he asks her, ‘Are you always this happy?’ And she smiles because she likes him.

It’s a later-in-life romance with all the baggage that goes with it.

Arnold is the perfect part for John Turturro, those soulful eyes drawing Gloria in.

And Julian Moore surprises with her candour in her role as Julia – I’ve never seen her in a part with nudity.

The nudity of Gloria counts, to add to her exposure; her vulnerability.

There’s authenticity in the frailty and strength of Gloria, making her choices relatable.

I loved seeing her little rebellions – the drinking, the smoking; the risk. These are the moments that humanise the ex-wife and mother into an individual trying to make something for herself in life.

Gloria Bell isn’t one of those rom-com, uplifting romance films. This is a realistic portrayal of a beautiful, middle-aged woman that left me with an overriding feeling of sadness.

Sure, the soundtrack was all about the 80s and disco music like Gloria (Laura Branigan) and Total Eclipse of the Heart (Bonnie Tyler). But it was Gloria’s son playing the Prelude in D Minor by J. S. Bach that set the tone.

Life is tough. Love is hard. People are hard. But we keep going.

Gloria keeps going.

She keeps being true to herself even if it means giving into that quiet desperation. She accepts it and struggles through.

That’s what makes the film so sad.

Thunder Road

Rated: M

Directed and Created by: Jim Cummings

Based on the Short Film: ‘Thunder Road’ (2016)

Produced by: Natalie Metzger, Zack Parker, Benjamin Wiessner

Starring: Jim Cummings, Kendal Farr, Nican Robinson, Macon Blair, Jocelyn DeBoer, Chelsea Edmunson Ammie Leonards and Bill Wise.

Thunder Road, named after the Bruce Springsteen song, is a character-driven film about a dishevelled cop (with mustache) falling apart.

Officer Jim Arnaud is an awkward guy, especially around normal people, like sitting around the dinner table with the family of his partner, Officer Nate Lewis (Nican Robinson), telling embarrassing stories without realising he shouldn’t be telling his partner’s family about his miscalculations; he doesn’t act any more normal at his mother’s funeral, or at parent-teacher meetings about his daughter, Crystal (Kendal Farr).

It’s in these awkward moments we get to know Jim, as he gives a eulogy at his mother’s funeral, about how she donated money so the nasty Down Syndrome girl at his school could play safely, like the other kids. The nasty girl was a biter, you see. And may not have had Down Syndrome.

Thunder Road isn’t a flashy film – there’s nothing clever about the camera shots or setting. This is all about the script and delivery from director, writer and star Jim Cummings.

The facial expressions of this guy are hilarious. Seeing those waves of emotion take over his face, then to see him pull it together only to lose it again. It’s seeing this super-nice guy, doing his absolute best in the worst of circumstances, then just lose his grip that tickles: standing, about to throw a child’s school desk, the teacher subtly pocketing the school safety-scissors included.

His mother is dead, his siblings don’t show at the funeral, his wife has left him, his daughter can’t stand him and is acting out, making statements like, ‘I hope I get mum’s boobs.’ And his job as a cop is emotionally draining and stressful.

His life is eating him alive.

But Jim continues to try to do the right thing only to end up with ripped pants.

Don’t get me wrong, the humour here is subtle – like the way Jim is described, ‘Everyone grieves differently. Everyone’s unique.’

You can just see it – how the nice people describe someone losing the plot at a funeral.

I’m still giggling.

Yet there’s a real sweet, heart-warmer here as well. A dad doing his absolute best for his kid. And seeing a friend helping out a buddy who just can’t get it right warms the cockles.

A refreshing take on how life just is sometimes with an extraordinary script serving up the heart of a character with perfect delivery: pure gold.

The Curse of the Weeping Woman

Rated: M

Directed by: Michael Chaves

Written by: Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis

Produced by: James Wan, Gary Dauberman and Emile Gladstone

Starring: Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, Patricia Velasquez, Marisol Ramirez, Sean Patrick Thomas, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen and Roman Christou.

Based on the Hispanic folk tale of La Llorona, The Weeping Woman, the film begins where the curse began – the 1600s, Mexico.

Llorona, famed for her beauty, catches the eye of a rich man who rides into her small village. Marrying the man of her dreams, she bares two children. The folk tale describes Llorona flying into a jealous rage when she finds her husband in the arms of a younger woman; her revenge, to kill those he prizes the most. His children.

She drowns his children. But when she realises what she’s done, guilt consumes her so she throws herself in the same waters, to drown. But her spirit remains to haunt, looking for children to replace the ones she has lost.

The film starts scary, with some surprising, brutal moments and angled camera shots that tilt the view through the eyes of the spirit, Llorona (Marisol Ramirez).

Yet as the film progresses, those creaking doors start to lose effect.

In present day Los Angeles, 1973, Anna Garcia (Linda Cardellini) lives as a single mum with two kids, Chris (Roman Christou) and Samantha (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen).

Working as a social worker, she struggles to balance life, to spend enough time with her kids and to take care of everything on her own.

But it’s a happy family.

Until, visiting Patricia (Patricia Valásquez), a client she knows through work, where she finds children locked behind a closet door covered in drawn eyes.

Thinking she’s saving the children, Anna unwittingly catches the attention of the Weeping Woman. A spirit determined to drown her children.

It all sounds like a good scary story. But l lost focus along the way with moments that left me wondering, how does a baseball bat scare off a spirit?

And social workers don’t investigate other colleagues when it comes their children’s welfare. Well, not officially.

Then along comes the ex-priest – not the one still with the church who loses all credibility when mentioning his dealings with the evil possessed doll, Annabelle. But the faith healer, Rafael Olvera (Raymond Cruz).

I just could not take him seriously. And neither could the Garcia family he’s trying to save when he gets them to rub intact eggs along the frames of doorways.

It was like the director realised the film was turning from horror to ridiculous and then used an incredibly dry humour to lift the film from drowning in a wash of boredom.

The film becomes borderline silly with lace and doe-eyed moments stated in dialogue like, ‘She’s come to drown us.’

I felt pretty water-logged.

But then I realised the irony of the faith healer’s humour against the murderous crazy spirit who drowns kids.

Overall, a lost opportunity that turned a horror movie into, something else.

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