Hillary Swank (Million Dollar Baby, Insomnia, and The Hunt) plays Juliette who moves into a new apartment after separating from her husband. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead, Watchmen, and Fall) is Max, her new landlord. Lee Pace (Guardians of the Galaxy and Bodies Bodies Bodies) is Jack, her ex who got her to drop everything and move to NYC for him when they first got together. Of course after that he then promptly began cheating on her. After Juliette discovers his unfaithfulness, she leaves him which is what causes the separation. Christopher Lee (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Wicker Man, and Star Wars Episodes 2 and 3) plays August, Max’s grandfather.
This would be Lee’s final Hammer film, yes, this is a Hammer film but quite honestly in name only. It is devoid of all color as well as Hammer’s typical Gothic flair. Swank, playing an ER doctor, begins an awkward romance with Max just in time for Jack to come back into the picture. She’s being stalked (we know, she doesn’t) by someone in the building. Is it August, who is mean as well as creepy as hell, or is it Jack who now wants her back, or is it Max who wants more of a relationship than she is ready to give? It gets kinda creepy, very odd, and somewhat predictable.
No Hammer atmosphere nor set pieces are to be found here either and everything is a slightly different shade of gray no matter if it’s day or night. There are layers to the story here, but we only scratch the surface as it is a very slow, plodding tale. The good part is I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Hillary Swank look better, I mean she is downright attractive and I don’t think I’ve ever looked at her that way before. Good old JDM looks pretty good too, don’t get me wrong. Neither fact helps make this better though. It has star power, and it tries to be better than it is but maybe I’ve just seen this same plot too many times before. Two and a half two-way mirrors out of five.
Wow. It says here (looking at his letterboxd) that I watched this many years ago. But you'd never know it from me since I don't remember a thing about it. It also says I gave it 2 1/2 stars. So yeah . . . what YOU said.
ReplyDeleteAnd now here I am some days later and I hardly remember anything about the film it's that forgettable. Sir Christopher deserved much better than this.
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