Triangle


2.5/4

Starring: Melissa George, Michael Dorman, Henry Nixon, Rachael Carpani, Liam Hemsworth, Emma Lung

Rated R for Violence and Language

“Triangle” is a creepy and twisty puzzlebox of a thriller that falls apart in the last act.  This is a bleak and chilling movie with effective performances and terrific cinematography.  Sadly, because the contrivances in the home stretch are so obvious and desperate, I can’t recommend it.

Jess (George) is a young mother of an autistic son who’s been having a rough day.  She’s going sailing with a few friends hoping to get some R&R.  Unfortunately, a freak storm capsizes their boat.  They are rescued by a passing ocean liner, but it becomes clear from the get-go that something is wrong.  A man in a mask is killing everyone, and that’s just the start of it.

The acting is effective, particularly for a movie that didn’t have a theatrical release.  Melissa George is good as a woman on the edge, and she brings to mind Brittany Murphy and Uma Thurman.  The best performance belongs to Michael Dorman, who plays nice guy Greg.  He’s very likable and refreshingly real.  Solid support is provided by the rest of the cast as well.

For the better part of an hour, “Triangle” is a creepy experience.  Writer/director Christopher Smith keeps adding new levels and twists to the storyline without losing the audience or breaking the film’s rules.  After the one hour mark, things slowly begin to fall apart.  Things begin to make less and less sense, and my interest in what happened waned.  It appears that Christopher Smith wrote himself into a corner, and lost his way trying to get out of it.  It’s ironic because there is a perfect opportunity for an out, but this was left dangling, presumably because it wouldn’t have allowed him to keep with the cyclical nature of the story.

The film looks great, by the way.  It’s sort of a daytime noir kind of look; like a dark version of “Better Homes & Gardens.”  The merging of real life and CGI is not seamless, but cinematographer Robert Humphreys makes it so that this is an asset rather than a detriment.

This is a frustrating movie to review.  There were plenty of things that I liked about the movie.  As I said, the first hour is well paced and very creepy.  But the final act is just too messy for me to give a recommendation without serious reservations.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Desert Flower

2/4 Starring: Liya Kebede, Sally Hawkins, Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson Rated R for Some Violent Content, A Scene of Sexuality and Language The problem with "Desert Flower" is not that Waris Dirie's story isn't suited for the cinematic treatment or that the actress playing her isn't acceptable.  The problem is that director Sherry Hormann doesn't do a good job of telling it.  This is a poorly focused film that can't decide what it wants to be about or what it wants to say. As is the case with many a true story, the life of Waris Dirie is too amazing to be made up by a Hollywood screenwriter.  This woman fled an arranged marriage as a child, spent years as a servant to a Somali diplomat in England, survived on the streets, and was discovered by a fashion photographer while working as a janitor.  Then she became a supermodel and UN Ambassador in the fight against female genital mutilation. Waris experienced a lot in her life.  Telling it all in a...
Read more

The Road

3.5/4 Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron Rated R for Some Violence, Disturbing Images and Language "The Road" has to be the most downbeat, depressing and cynical movie I've ever seen.  That's not meant as a criticism, but a fact.  This is a tough movie to get through, but not a chore.  Those who venture in will find their time well spent, albeit not in a necessarily pleasant way.  Then again, if a movie is based off a novel by Cormac McCarthy, "pleasant" isn't a word one would hope to be used to describe it. The film takes place after the world has ended.  How it happened is not explained because it doesn't matter.  But any hope of the Earth recovering from what happened has long since gone.  A man (Mortensen) and his son (Smit-McPhee) are travelling together, trying to "get to the coast."  There are few people left, although considering what many are doing with the goal of survival, that's a good thing...
Read more

My Left Foot

 2/4 Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Ray McAnally, Fiona Shaw, Alison Whelan Rated R (probably for Language and Brief Violence) "My Left Foot" feels like one of those movies designed to win Oscars and nothing else.  In fact, it did win two Oscars for the immortal Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker, but apart from their strong work, there's not much else to remember about this movie.  It's well-acted, but all in all it's pretty dull. Christy Brown (Day-Lewis) is getting recognized for his work in order to raise money for the disabled.  Despite being a talented artist and writer, Christy is not the ideal candidate for the job.  He's an alcoholic jerk who makes no secret of his lust for women nor is he above using his disability to manipulate people into doing what he wants.  Interspersed with his attempts to seduce a woman tasked with looking after him while he awaits his entrance are vignettes from his childhood.  Most notably how his mothe...
Read more