Reviews

The acting, the dialog, the music, the scenery, the cinematography, the premise, the plot. Did I miss anything?

This is a film that does EVERYTHING right.

What's more is it never confirms to the viewer that vampires are involved, beyond the poeticism of plot dramatization.

The beautiful thing about this film is that everything in it can and does happen in the real world, but because of the music, acting and cinematography and general mood, all these elements combine to make the film seem other worldly in its beauty.

This is just masterful perfection in filmmaking. There are precious few films on this level of sophistication. And as such it never had much of an audience in America, owing to this sophistication.

Simply put, this is an artistic drama film about a family in rural America (Around the time of wwII) who are seeing reality disappear from beneath them. The writer cleverly uses vampires as a dramatic impetus to express the characters and their unfolding distress about their personal lives and the world they co-inhabit in their Alienated positions in life.

The true darkness herein is a reality we read about all the time in the news. And this portion of the story directly effects the dove family and particularly the love shared between Cameron and Dolphin.

I give this film the highest rating possible for not caring about the conventions of normal filmmaking and in doing so being able to tell an emotionally pure story that comes straight from the heart. Additionally the people you see, their peculiar characteristics and such, are people you could actually meet out in the world, which gives it an extra flare of inspiration to the viewer for just wanting to go out and live life in all its beautiful and unexpected strangeness.

What this film did brilliantly is that it tricked this viewer into believing there was some supernatural element to Esther, the protagonist of this lovely little adorable flick.

We know there is something odd about the freckle faced Russian cutie pie who the Coleman family adopt and take home as an addition to their family, but we are left questioning exactly what that is till the very end of the film when something quite unexpected is revealed to us.

As a viewer of suspense films that depict supernatural elements at work, most viewers might be tricked into thinking that there is something ghostly or spectral about Esther, or that she is just a psychotic child, or a vampire, or a mutant of some kind. But the truth is something much more interesting and unique, and consequently possible, however remotely this might be (owing to the existence of such rare cases).

For the first three quarters of the film you are treated to the adorably psychotic inclinations of a child who we know very little about, other than that she is picked up at an orphanage by a couple, the wife having suffered a recent Miscarriage. As Esther shows her increasingly dark tendencies you cannot help but fall in love with her even more, paradoxically. She is able to dance the fine line between murderous little psychopath and adorable, gentle and lovable little raggedy anne doll that you just want to hug hug hug (checking for sharp objects first of course) and give all your love to.

There is a sort of controversial romance scene toward the end of the film which has left a few viewers feeling uncomfortable, but once you ascertain the truth about the child the reason for the scene falls into place. Besides, the medium of film is an art form that should portray any and all possibilities in life. It is the job of the filmmaker to leave audiences shocked, questioning judgments and even feeling slightly off put, if the occasion should call for it.

This film definitely has a unique enough premise to be memorable to this viewer. And I plan to revisit it again in the company of family and friends

Much better premise than a generic vampire film like twilight.

The remote feeling of the boarding school translates well, as does the dissonant relationship between Rebecca and pretty much everyone else at the school.

The ambiguity of the supernatural element embodied by Lilly Cole in her role as Ernessa leaves the viewer questioning what she is, all the way till the very end. At the end of the film it is indeed up to the viewer to decide that for themselves but you definitely find yourself questioning what kind of supernatural agency you are dealing with. As far as the relationship between the Moths and Ernessa, that seems to be more of a poetic expression than an actual supernatural impetus, at least as far as this viewer is able to interpret. As a fan of TV shows like the X-files I appreciated the mysterious approach to that aspect of the story.

The main gripe I have with this film is it is simply not long enough. Making it feel like an extended pilot episode of an abandoned TV show. A film like this could easily have expanded on its premise for at least 2 hours. But it shares this flaw with many modern films, I just found it frustratingly short. It doesn't even hit the hour and 30 minute mark, the screen credits begin to role out at about an hour and 18 minutes in. Ever have a feeling that a film just ends too quickly? That is the feeling I got from this one. A shame because it could have been amazing. Instead it was just a fairly good but short supernatural suspense/thriller or whatever. Something I may revisit at some point, but not feeling that extreme magnetic pull as with other films of this kind due to its shorter than average length.