Annette Bening plays a woman who is plagued by these bizarre dreams throughout her life. As the movie begins, the dreams are getting worse. Children in the area of her home have been abducted and found drowned in the reservoir (which we learn in the beginning of the story was formed by flooding the town that existed there). Bening's dreams are of the children being abducted. Her husband goes to the police (the chief is That Guy from CSI (not Grissom, the head honcho guy) and he is told that the most recent girl, who Bening thought she was dreaming of, was found drowndeded.
We find, though, that Bening's dreams are actually of the future when her daughter gets abducted by this mysterious serial killer. When her daughter turns up dead, she goes off the deep end (pun intended). The dreams get worse. She dreams her husband's death. She gets locked up. We discover that her dreams are being fed to her by the serial killer who had been chained up as little boy and left to die when the town was flooded.
That's really enough of the "plot" to share. This movie was messed up. Very far-fetched. Very stressful. Probably my biggest problem with the film (and there were many, many problems) was the way that mental health institutions were portrayed. Just horrible.
As for Downey, he plays the serial killer. He appears in fragments in the dream scenes but we don't really get to see him until minute 70 (of 100). He's not really convincing as insane. He's supposed to be a redhead (to feed a stereotype (another problem)) but the dye job is horrendous. There's supposed to be some family issues that have contributed to his insanity but it's just not well done. He's really more goofy than insane. And he's the best character in the flick. Ugh.
I'm not even putting a link up for it. I don't want you looking for it or watching it. There is ANYTHING that you can do to make better use of 100 minutes. I think watching 20 minutes of Carlos Mencia five times in a row would be better. I'm not sure if sticking my finger in an electrical socket for 100 minutes would be better. See, I was being hyperbolic. It's just really, really, really, really bad.
Movie: 
Downey:
1 comment:
Granted, it's not his best film, but the reason RDJ comes across as "more goofy than insane" (other than possible drug use at the time) is that his character is supposed to be childlike, stuck at an early stage of mental development. I think he played that really, really well--maybe even too well, as in, it really mirrors his own situation, being stuck in a childlike state because of his parents' neglect (not abuse though of course, although that depends on how you define abuse). I like how he adds to the gender-bending aspects of the film, as well.
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