A couple, Jessie and Mark Hobson trying to cope with the death of their infant son, adopt a child - a little boy named Cody. The kid is a bit
reserved at first. But they try their best to make him as comfortable and welcome as possible. And slowly but surely the kid starts to open up. All is going well... But not quite...
Why is the kid trying his best to stay awake at night, alone in his room? And on nights, when he does fall
asleep, strange things start happening. Does the boy possess a supernatural gift? And, they discover that this gift turns into a horrific nightmare...
At
the beginning, the movie subtly but successfully depicts the pain that
parents can go through, when they
lose a child. The father is trying to cope by immersing himself in the
daily chores that need to be done. The heartbroken mother is still to
come to grips with the loss of her child. Attending
alcoholics-anonymous-like meetings with other parents who have lost
their kids; battling insomnia; unable to forget the memory of their lost
child. What appears to most critics
as no chemistry between the couple, is actually the two trying to cope
with the tragedy in their own different Martian and Venusian ways, trying hard to not let it rip their marriage apart.
The kid with a beautiful but eventually nightmarish supernatural gift is also portrayed pretty nicely. Jacob Tremblay has acted the part pretty nicely, depicting a kid with a weight on his shoulders - who
knows his gift can cause harm and tries so hard to control it.
The movie explores the theme of loss of a loved one. The anguish and the inability to cope with it has been
depicted nicely. The movie could have delved deeper into it, but that would have made it lose its momentum.
There
are a few loose ends in the story though. And a few scenes are left to
ones own interpretations. Some
parts of the movie are amateurish and some are just plain ridiculous.
For instance, when Jessie loses her husband, she displays no emotion whatsoever. Its like he was never a relevant part of
her life. The
climax appears rushed and strangely devoid of juice, after a good buildup. Yet, the final revelation and wrap up, though hasty and
apparently half baked, left me with a warm glow the same way Green Mile,
another unusual movie
that has a supernatural gift as its core idea, did (though, no comparison should be made between the two, because Green Mile is a much better movie)
This movie is based on an interesting premise. And the makers could have made it into a much better movie, had they explored the idea even deeper. But instead, they tried to make it into a commercial supernatural thriller. And that's where the movie lets us down. Which is unexpected from writer/director Mike Flanagan who gave us such superb psychological / supernatural thriller like Oculus. Though, the final revelation and wrap-up is complex, unexpected and totally worthy of appreciation.
If you are looking for a horror / supernatural thriller movie, then this isn't it. Like the audience in the theater where I was watching this movie, you will be sadly disappointed. Instead, if you like some new ideas that drive the movie, with a healthy dose of the supernatural, then you will certainly
like this movie, the way I did.
This is not an easy movie to watch. Not your regular keep-your-brains-aside kind of entertainment. But for
the connoisseur of the unusual and the different, this is an interesting watch. Unfortunately the commercial thriller angle adopted by the makers of the movie will grate on your senses...
Yet, for someone who likes movies with interesting and unusual concepts, this is certainly worth watching once.
My Ratings:2.5
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