I heard great things about this movie but it just failed to light up the screen for me right from the get go.
I found it sitting on a fence and it never really got anything; scary, eventful, worrysome, nervous, trippy, stimulating or otherwise it just sat on the fence not really saying anything about the after life, this life, life after death, Angels, Heaven, purgatory or anything in between.
Worst of all it sat there smothered in CGI glory trying to outsmart the audience with smoke and mirrors instead of telling any great story.
Whilst it never felt long, it was a tad at 2:30mins it just didn’t really add up to anything spectacular.
The premise for the telling of her death was good, it kind of had you in from the reverse perspective of a Sixth Sense or The Hours in that she explains it all up front for you so you really sit there wondering for a brief few minutes what is left to tell. The answer is sadly, not much.
And that’s were the tiresome stuff kicks in. The pedophile, whilst just another woman-hating and murdering bastard, is seemingly going to get away with it for how ever many years pass between her being set free and finally accepting that karma will just take care of him, which it does but not satisfyingly enough for my liking.
He looks 10 – 15 years older after she passes on to heaven before he dies a fairly boring death going over the rail on a slippery snowy pipe. I’d rather a real kick arse heroine pulled each of his fingernails out individually then slammed a few fish hooks down the eye of his penis before hobbling him ‘Misery‘ style for a start. But no. He meanders on undiscovered before tripping to his easy death. Boring!
The styling of the film is very clever and purgatory is a fascinating place that our victim floats around in in a cross over between what feels like a Tim Burton throw-back confused with another OTT CGI calamity- schism of a Peter Jackson movie.
The desire for our heroine to weigh up the consequences of watching, which have been awful on her living family, she slips between passing through and staying behind to watch over her family and on and on but it just isn’t strong enough to be carried by it.
While I was lured in by the promise of a great story from the after life, I was bored mostly and let down by the fact that none of the stellar actors involved really got given anything to do. Jackson can be oh so so hit and miss with his movies, but to me this one is just a dead straight misfire for me.