My quest to finish the year strong as officially started. I finished a review yesterday and got started on this review right away. For today's review, I watched the movie In A Dark Place (2006). I ended up watching this movie before I finished my last review, which is something I frown on. I like to finish a review before I move on to the next movie...unless I'm at a film festival. I have no time to write at those, so I don't have much choice. Anyway, I wanted to watch In A Dark Place because I wanted to get it sent back to Netflix in order to get my next DVD before Christmas. I had to get this movie watched early in the week in order to make sure I would get the next movie in time.
Anna (Leelee Sobieski) is working as an art teacher at a school when she called in by the headmaster. She is told that things just aren't working out with her at the school and she is going to be released, all the while the headmaster seems to be a little extra creepy with Anna. He does like her though, so he recommends her to a Mr. Laing, who is looking for someone to basically raise his niece and nephew since he has no interest in doing so. Mr. Laing took the two in after their parents were killed in an accident. Anna meets with Miss Grose (Tara Fitzgerald), who is in charge of finding someone for Mr. Laing, and explains everything to Anna. They head to the estate where the children live and meet Flora (Gabrielle Adam). Anna seems to take to Flora quickly but she is given a letter from the school Miles is at. It seems that Miles (Christian Olson) has been expelled for an unknown reason so Anna takes Flora with her to bring Miles back home. Anna finds that the children are close to each other, often together more than apart, and they are a little...off. Miss Grose writes this off as the children dealing with their parent's death. Anna begins to see a man and woman who she thinks are ghosts. She also thinks the ghosts are after the children in a not-so-good way. Are there really ghosts though?
In A Dark Place was written by Peter Waddington and directed by Donato Rotunno. This is a co-production by the UK and Luxembourg. It is based on the novel The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I have never read this story but I did look it up once I knew that the movie was based on it. To my surprise, In A Dark Place follows the source material fairly close. There are some changes of course. The novel is set during the summer months while the movie is set in the winter months. I think this probably had to do with when they could film more than thinking a winter setting was better. The main change seems to the ending. It is the same ending, in a way, but they change it up and end up with the same result...sort of. Another change is that the story is now set in modern times. Since the setting is this large estate with no real neighbors, modern things rarely come into play so it doesn't change the story any. To my surprise, In A Dark Place doesn't get very good ratings from fans. I certainly didn't love this movie, but I hardly hated it. It was just okay for me so I gave it an average score. It looked like the biggest complaint about the film is that it is too sexual. I wasn't sure if this was because it is so different from the source material, which I assume was the reason, or people are just being a prude. This was perhaps the biggest change in the story. I'm assuming this was changed anyway since I didn't see anything about it from what I was reading. There is a good bit that is sexual about the film. Sobieski never has a nude scene, though she teases a lot with a rob that she sometimes wears. There is a scene showing her from behind while standing up in a bathtub, but I'm not sure if that was actually her or not. Fitzgerald does have a nude scene, which surprised me a bit. Mostly the sexuality comes from Anna being sexually abused as a child and believing that Flora and Miles went through the same thing. I didn't mind this at all, but it was interesting that this made the third film in a row that I have watched that deals with sexual abuse in some way. The story kept me interested for the most part. It does have a bit of a slow pace to it, which was another complaint from other fans.
I was actually hoping that they were going to focus more on Flora and Miles. Their odd behavior had me dreaming of a different kind of plot, evil kids. The kids are happiest when they are together, which by itself isn't a bit deal. They were given the sense of plotting when they were together though. When we first see them together, the whisper and giggle a lot, which they seem to do a lot of the rest of the film as well. One scene struck me when Flora is giving a doll a bath and then is shown to hold the doll under the water like she was trying to drown it. I honestly thought that the plot was going to take this left turn with the kids. As I mentioned before, the ending was changed slightly. I think this was done to reflect the other changes, even the ending still has the same result as it did with the source material. I didn't care for the ending at all, at least with the way it was done. I did like the death, just not the way the person died. It was pretty lame and it is the main reason I'm giving In A Dark Place an average rating.
There aren't any effects here, besides giving a couple of characters a ghostly/dead look. This looked okay, but they looked like they just haven't had any sleep for a good while instead of looking dead. The acting is pretty good here. I like Leelee Sobieski but I have never gone out of my way in order to watch a movie that she is in. She does fairly well here. I thought she could have done better in some scenes but I did like her overall here. I also thought that Christian Olson and Gabrielle Adam did a great job in their roles as siblings. I never really found them annoying, just weird so they did their jobs just right.
I found it interesting that In A Dark Place leaves it somewhat open as to if there are ghosts or not. I felt it pointed more towards the ghosts not actually being there. There were some scenes that made me wonder about it the other way though. Either way, I liked that Anna is a flawed character. She obviously means well but goes about things the wrong way. Why she was dismissed from her teaching job is never fully explained. All that is said is that she isn't working out and has been warned before. The reason is left open, but if events that unfold are a telling sign, then I think it is easy to put together what possibly happened to give Anna a warning and dismissal. If the ending had been done in a better way, I would have liked In A Dark Place more than I did. It doesn't look like too many people I know have given this one a watch yet. I think it will just depend on how close to the source material you want it to be. Personally, I liked how they changed things to put their own stamp on it without straying too far away from the novel.
3 out of 5 At least one of the kids kicked the bucket
Anna (Leelee Sobieski) is working as an art teacher at a school when she called in by the headmaster. She is told that things just aren't working out with her at the school and she is going to be released, all the while the headmaster seems to be a little extra creepy with Anna. He does like her though, so he recommends her to a Mr. Laing, who is looking for someone to basically raise his niece and nephew since he has no interest in doing so. Mr. Laing took the two in after their parents were killed in an accident. Anna meets with Miss Grose (Tara Fitzgerald), who is in charge of finding someone for Mr. Laing, and explains everything to Anna. They head to the estate where the children live and meet Flora (Gabrielle Adam). Anna seems to take to Flora quickly but she is given a letter from the school Miles is at. It seems that Miles (Christian Olson) has been expelled for an unknown reason so Anna takes Flora with her to bring Miles back home. Anna finds that the children are close to each other, often together more than apart, and they are a little...off. Miss Grose writes this off as the children dealing with their parent's death. Anna begins to see a man and woman who she thinks are ghosts. She also thinks the ghosts are after the children in a not-so-good way. Are there really ghosts though?
In A Dark Place was written by Peter Waddington and directed by Donato Rotunno. This is a co-production by the UK and Luxembourg. It is based on the novel The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I have never read this story but I did look it up once I knew that the movie was based on it. To my surprise, In A Dark Place follows the source material fairly close. There are some changes of course. The novel is set during the summer months while the movie is set in the winter months. I think this probably had to do with when they could film more than thinking a winter setting was better. The main change seems to the ending. It is the same ending, in a way, but they change it up and end up with the same result...sort of. Another change is that the story is now set in modern times. Since the setting is this large estate with no real neighbors, modern things rarely come into play so it doesn't change the story any. To my surprise, In A Dark Place doesn't get very good ratings from fans. I certainly didn't love this movie, but I hardly hated it. It was just okay for me so I gave it an average score. It looked like the biggest complaint about the film is that it is too sexual. I wasn't sure if this was because it is so different from the source material, which I assume was the reason, or people are just being a prude. This was perhaps the biggest change in the story. I'm assuming this was changed anyway since I didn't see anything about it from what I was reading. There is a good bit that is sexual about the film. Sobieski never has a nude scene, though she teases a lot with a rob that she sometimes wears. There is a scene showing her from behind while standing up in a bathtub, but I'm not sure if that was actually her or not. Fitzgerald does have a nude scene, which surprised me a bit. Mostly the sexuality comes from Anna being sexually abused as a child and believing that Flora and Miles went through the same thing. I didn't mind this at all, but it was interesting that this made the third film in a row that I have watched that deals with sexual abuse in some way. The story kept me interested for the most part. It does have a bit of a slow pace to it, which was another complaint from other fans.
I was actually hoping that they were going to focus more on Flora and Miles. Their odd behavior had me dreaming of a different kind of plot, evil kids. The kids are happiest when they are together, which by itself isn't a bit deal. They were given the sense of plotting when they were together though. When we first see them together, the whisper and giggle a lot, which they seem to do a lot of the rest of the film as well. One scene struck me when Flora is giving a doll a bath and then is shown to hold the doll under the water like she was trying to drown it. I honestly thought that the plot was going to take this left turn with the kids. As I mentioned before, the ending was changed slightly. I think this was done to reflect the other changes, even the ending still has the same result as it did with the source material. I didn't care for the ending at all, at least with the way it was done. I did like the death, just not the way the person died. It was pretty lame and it is the main reason I'm giving In A Dark Place an average rating.
There aren't any effects here, besides giving a couple of characters a ghostly/dead look. This looked okay, but they looked like they just haven't had any sleep for a good while instead of looking dead. The acting is pretty good here. I like Leelee Sobieski but I have never gone out of my way in order to watch a movie that she is in. She does fairly well here. I thought she could have done better in some scenes but I did like her overall here. I also thought that Christian Olson and Gabrielle Adam did a great job in their roles as siblings. I never really found them annoying, just weird so they did their jobs just right.
I found it interesting that In A Dark Place leaves it somewhat open as to if there are ghosts or not. I felt it pointed more towards the ghosts not actually being there. There were some scenes that made me wonder about it the other way though. Either way, I liked that Anna is a flawed character. She obviously means well but goes about things the wrong way. Why she was dismissed from her teaching job is never fully explained. All that is said is that she isn't working out and has been warned before. The reason is left open, but if events that unfold are a telling sign, then I think it is easy to put together what possibly happened to give Anna a warning and dismissal. If the ending had been done in a better way, I would have liked In A Dark Place more than I did. It doesn't look like too many people I know have given this one a watch yet. I think it will just depend on how close to the source material you want it to be. Personally, I liked how they changed things to put their own stamp on it without straying too far away from the novel.
3 out of 5 At least one of the kids kicked the bucket
