AN OUTSTANDING, OVERLOOKED FILM
Added 9/27/2009
DANIKA is a mere 80 minute film I watched a few hours ago and the impact it had on me was immense. Marisa Tomei was simply outstanding in this roll and obviously very believable since I still can't shake the film from my head. I was easily drawn into the plot right from the beginning and it mesmerized me until the very end. I never left my chair! It's been many, many years since a film held my full attention and it amazes me that I never heard of it before. But then it's obviously not a mega-dollar production and it seems like that's the only films we ever hear about these days. I HIGHLY recommend this film and since I watched it on Encore, I'll now have to purchase it to add to my movie library. As a side note, I hear so many people complain that some of their favorite movies are not on DVD. Unfortunately, each time movie formats change, (beta, VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray) we lose a few more outstanding films. But thanks to the premium channels of Encore, I am still able to see those wonderful, forgotten films.
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I don't want to spoil the ending. Apparently it's a shocking surprise you didn't see coming that explains all the events leading up to it.
It's about a mother/wife who has a serious problem- she thinks all the worse things that can possibly happen to her family actually ARE happening, even though they're not. Well then again, maybe they *are*. Who knows?
The storyline jumps around from one horrible event to the other. In one scene, she goes to put her groceries in the refrigerator, only to pull someones HEAD out of the grocery bag, haha. This prompts her to grab her kids, run outside, and scream there's been a murder. When the police arrive, they look through the house and come to the conclusion there's no murder and the woman is crazy. But this is where things get totally confusing- maybe this murder really did happen and the carefully created storyline made it seem like it didn't.
The movie is basically a constant flow of unusual and confusing twists and turns that make you wonder more about what's going on than actually trying to figure out this complex mess. You just never know what's real and what's not.
There were other shocking moments near the end that involve her husband and her oldest sons girlfriend. Apparently the girlfriend was the housekeeper all along. Or maybe she made up the housekeeper part. I mean, maybe the mother/wife made up that part. Maybe the whole scene with her oldest sons girlfriend jumping in bed with the mother/wife was made up too.
No wait, I get it- the entire time the mother/wife was actually killed during that bank robbery in the beginning of the movie! She never really had a family the whole time- she just made up having three kids and a husband because it was during the bank robbery she questioned whether she made the right decision going through life not even bothering starting a family. Yes, and the oldest sons girlfriend, the school teacher, the police, these were just people that flashed through her mind in a moment of total confusion. Yes, this is it! Sarcasm of course.
Hey, that's just one of possibly 1,000 ways to interpret this movie. Anyway, back to the movie review...
Throughout the movie, the mother/wife/psychopath kept imagining what it would be like to see her children much older, and what they would be like as teenagers. Of course it meant as teenagers -since the mother/wife had severe mental problems- each of her children would all go through their own distinct severe problems which would end up driving the mother/wife crazy.
Honestly, there wasn't much of anything that made a bit of sense to me. The only thing I gathered is that the mother/wife was so screwed up in the head that absolutely *nothing* could save her. If this movie was designed to confuse the viewers, or make people question what's real in the world and what's just an illusion, congratulations- it succeeded.
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Like an excellent "Twilight Zone" episode
Added 6/15/2009
Very well done with a surprise ending that I never suspected, which explains everything. A haunting movie that will come back to you again and again, and make you much more sympathetic to the plight of the mentally ill. I probably will see it again. Marisa Tomei, as usual, was perfect.
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Great Discussion Material - Possible Spoiler!
Added 6/8/2009
I don't know if this movie has a "correct" interpretation of what happened. I think it is more to get people talking. I saw it this weekend and I'm still trying to figure out what really happened. It definitely sticks with you long after you've viewed it. Sometimes I thought it was just a dream, other times I thought it really happened and she was just flashing back in a confused state of mind, and then other times I think it was her sitting on a bench thinking of different scenarios of how the whole thing could have taken place. If it was real, then was the accident at the end intentional.... did she kill her husband.... what was up with the severed head vision ..... who was the lost child.....what was up with the swimming pool/dead dog segment? So many questions come out of this movie. Really a movie you want to watch at least twice and to discuss with someone else.
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An intense psychological thriller! Was it all a dream?
Added 4/12/2009
This movie was pretty good. The ending will shock you, but you can figure out what happened on your own (I hope you can!). This movie was kind of sad in a way. Marisa Tomei gave an excellent performance in this movie. The movie covered the entire spectrum of emotions. Some parts are happy, sad, angry, and etc. She is worrying throughout the movie about her children and her family.
I can't forget the sexy Regina Hall who plays danika's shrink. Craig Bierko does a good job as danika's husband. He was funny spoofing Tom Cruise in Scary Movie 4.
This movie is really psychological and it hooks you from the first few minutes!!
You will be constantly thinking about what is going on. Is it real
or is Danika hallucinating? I don't want to spoil the ending. I
wonder what happens to Danika ... she should get help or go
to a shelter.
Bryan
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Dark, Intelligent Melodrama
Added 10/26/2009
This movie hits hard, especially in today's miserable economy. Two brothers, desperate for money for different reasons, plot to rob their parents' suburban jewelry store. The brothers have grown up in the business so they know how to fence the jewels, they know their way around the store and its schedule, and the parents are insured, so the brothers will get what they need (or think they need) and no harm done. Of course it all goes horribly wrong. The story is old hat but the story-telling structure is thought-provoking, the visual style unobtrusively perfect, and the acting excellent all around, particularly Albert Finney. The audience is challenged to think about the choices we make, what really matters to us, what we might be driven to, and how we delude ourselves that if we can just surmount this or that obstacle, we'll be in clover. The bonus feature about the making of the film is interesting. However, this is uniformly dark, perhaps Lumet's bleakest work since "The Pawnbroker." Don't go looking for anything fun or life-affirming. It's easy to see why this was not a big financial success.
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a good performace
Added 10/16/2009
The title has a basic history, than make remember about the feelings was everyone have inside
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"The Pawnbroker" Redux
Added 10/11/2009
When you have made as many classic films as Sidney Lumet has, self-conscious filmmaking
stops eons ago. You know a pro when you see a film that does not flash across
each scene: "Wow, look at my editing, look at my script, look at my mise-en-scene,
look at my cinematography, etc., etc...." This is such a film. This is not a collage
of pretty scenes, neat editing and fancy dialogue (which describes 90 % of art-house film
today). This is, in some ways, a conservative film with an almost Art-Deco minimalist and realist
stylism without the wink-wink nod-nod that has, on occasion, even afflicted a Scorsese film
(and all-too-often Coen Brothers films) and has made Tarantino completely unwatchable.
The always topnotch and realible score by Carter Burwell is near perfect. There are many
good postmodern crime and film-noir movies produced in the past 10-20 years; what makes this
film so good is the deft hand of a pro who need not reaffirm any cinematically credibility
that may have been questioned in the past. He doesn't need to and moreover he doesn't care.
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