If the owl is crying, it’s because he had to sit through this awful film. Despite being based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley) this movie is a muddled mess. The book is likely much better; though it was worth adapting into film, sadly, it wasn’t adapted into a good film. Director/writer Jamie Thraves clearly has no idea what to do with Highsmith’s material.
The film is so dull that even director Thraves seems to lose interest and thus keeps changing the plot randomly. The film starts out with an interesting premise. A troubled man named Robert Forrester (Paddy Considine) going through a divorce from his beautiful wife Nikki (Caroline Dhavernas) seeks solace in a quiet, small town. He becomes obsessed with a woman named Jenny (Julia Stiles) who lives alone in a little house, occasionally visited by her boyfriend Greg (James Gilbert). Robert begins to stalk Jenny, lurking in the woods outside her home and watching her through the windows. Jenny seems to sense someone is there but she isn’t sure, until one night she spots her stalker wandering around outside her house at night. Bizarrely, instead of calling the cops, she invites the creepy prowler in. They have a conversation wherein they bond, but has she let a psycho into her life?
At this point, Thraves completely loses interest in this plot and decides to abruptly switch gears and tell a different story. Maybe the book did a better job of making the transition but the film gives us whiplash with the sudden u-turn. The characters inexplicably go into instant role reversal. Suddenly, Jenny dumps her boyfriend and starts stalking Robert, declaring that they were “meant to be” and swearing her love for him. Robert, on the other hand, is so creeped out by her Glenn Close-like attentions (despite the fact that he was stalking her) that he tries to avoid her. He tells her he isn’t interested and refuses her sexual advances, but Jenny will not be put off. Naturally, this doesn’t go over too well with ex-boyfriend Greg, who attacks Robert. Will Greg kill Robert? Will Jenny?
Once again, Thraves decides this plot is too boring so he chooses to toss it out and tell a third story. The plot, which started as an Unlawful Entry-style story of a man obsessed with a woman, and then made the transformation into the Fatal Attraction obsessed woman mode, now becomes a Hitchcockian drama about a wrongly accused man. In thrave’s third attempt at finding a plot, Robert and Jenny are suddenly a couple and Robert has been accused of murdering Greg. Jenny believes Robert is innocent but the police aren’t convinced by Robert’s tale of leaving Greg lying on the river shore, bruised but alive, after a fight. Neither does Greg’s vengeful dad. Can Robert and Jenny prove Greg’s innocence?
Any one of these ideas might have made for a decent film if Thraves had had the interest and patience to actually stick with it and make a linear film. Instead, his stream of consciousness-style of storytelling seems like the Tourettes version of filmmaking.
Another problem is that there are no likable characters in the film. That isn’t necessarily a black mark, if the characters are interesting enough, but none of these people are. Dull plus unlikable equals unwatchable. The performances are lackluster at best. Considine comes close to changing his facial expression several times but never really loses that disinterested “What’s my motivation?” look. Julie Stiles, the biggest name in the cast, doesn’t have a clue what to do with her character, and who can blame her, considering how badly Jenny is written. The most interesting character and the best performance is by Dhavernas as Robert’s snarky and witty ex-wife Nikki. She brings a lot of energy to the character, making her fun to watch. It’s too bad none of the major characters were half as well written or portrayed.
Several references are made in the movie to owls being the messengers of death. That just goes to show how little thought was put into the script because owls are not considered messengers of death. Did someone mix owls up with ravens? The book probably had a much better reason for using the owl imagery. If only it were made clear here. If only anything were made clear here. The owl is probably crying “foul!”
DVD Bonus Features
There are, fortunately, no extra in this DVD. And that’s a good thing. You won’t want any.
"The Cry of the Owl" is on sale June 8, 2010 and is rated R. Thriller. Written and directed by Jamie Thraves. Starring Julia Stiles, Paddy Considine, Caroline Dhavernas, James Gilbert.
