I don’t mind if people who saw it didn’t like it, but a big chunk of the thread is people who haven’t seen it saying it’s going to be really awful, mainly the OP asking for spoilers because they’re just absolutely certain that the movie’s going to be really awful no matter what, and then people saying how really awful it just has to be based on reading the spoilers. I didn’t read the thread until after I saw the movie because I didn’t want to be spoiled about anything. I didn’t even watch the trailer or read a synopsis or review, and I’m very glad.
Yeah, I’ll agree that Joshua put her in a similar situation, as the mom of a weirdo kid. She’s so far been so utterly wasted by Hollywood that it’s disgusting. So far the only big-name movie she’s been in where you’d notice her is The Departed, as Matt Damon’s lover and Leonardo DiCaprio’s therapist. Not a great role, but it was nice to see her in something that cost more than $1.98 to make. She’s mostly been featured in teeny tiny indie films like 2004’s Down to the Bone, where there was even a brief bit of Oscar talk about her role, which would have done for her what Oscar nominations did for Janet McTeer, Marion Cotillard, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Keisha Castle-Hughes and others (that is, up their face and name recognition). She will be on the podium one of these days, but it’s going to take more than bit roles, girlfriend roles, outstanding feature roles in tiny mediocre movies (which is never the actor’s fault) or mothers of creepy kids roles to do it. Her next movie is with George Clooney, so while probably not an awards-level film, it should get her more attention.
Yeah, it was hardly Sarsgaard’s best role, but the character’s wife had given him reason in the past to not trust her, and he had made the first connection with Esther, so his cluelessness was understandable. Sarsgaard’s another actor who’s been under-appreciated and wasted, but at least he’s been given more chances than Farmiga.
I think mainly what this movie did was make me want to keep track of the careers of the writer (David Johnson), the director (Jaume Collet-Serra) and the actress who played Esther, Isabelle Fuhrman. She was fantastic. The only other thing I’d seen her in was the reviled (unfairly, IMO) Hounddog, but I didn’t recognize her from that so it was like seeing her for the first time. Plus the little girl who played Max (Aryana Engineer) was extremely good, and conveyed everything she needed to convey with no dialogue at all. Very impressive, especially considering this was her first movie.
Speaking of the kids, I knew I’d seen that boy (Jimmy Bennett) somewhere before but I couldn’t place where. After checking his IMDB page, I realized that not only had I been seeing him in numerous previews for the upcoming Robert Rodriguez film Shorts, he was the young asshole “James Tiberius Kirk” who crashes the beautiful antique car off the cliff. I’d been seeing that Star Trek teaser for months and months, dozens of times, before the movie finally opened, and I just wanted to take him and slap the holy shit out of him. Words could not express how much I hated him and that teaser. Steal, joyride, then destroy a fine vintage automobile, and then act all cocky to the cop, little bastard. It speaks to Bennett’s acting skills that I never recognized him as the young Kirk I hated so much for so long.