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Reviews
Anazapta (2002)
Who Was William? - Spoiler Alert
This is a spoiler alert - as I refer to something occurring at the end of the story: I have only one thing to add to the already submitted reviews. Who is "William" at the end? He's never mentioned before. The prisoner Jacques character seems to morph into this other William at the very end as he is being welcomed in a field by a waving woman, referred to as "Lady". I re-played the scene three times on Amazon Prime and still don't get it. Is the idea that Jacques was an apparition or ghost all along and reverts at the end to an idealized version of the man he could have been, and is now being welcomed into a sylvan paradise (i.e. heaven) by his mother? That would be in sync with the contention of the returning lord and husband of Mathilda that he (the lord) personally murdered Jacques as a baby and (literally?) ate his heart. Either this is a lie or Jacques made an amazing recovery. Oh well I won't let it keep me up too many nights trying to figure it out. Maybe someone else reading this has a better idea of the significance of that last scene.
Murder by Invitation (1941)
Bargain-Basement Agatha Christie
I won't rehash what the other reviewers have said, other than to say that most were a bit too generous. Even though this B-movie had a running time of only 67 minutes, it seemed to me more like 3 hours, as the whole story was so tedious. Everything about it is flat and stale - the production values, the acting, the writing, and especially the "humor". I am guessing it seemed old hat even in 1941. I gave it a watch because Marian Marsh was in it, and she was incredibly captivating in several of her films of the 1930's. Here she is mostly wasted. There is one basic principle shortchanged here, and it is one that I believe is basic to any kind of drama (comedy or serious, from wild fantasy to kitchen-sink realism) - the sense that those involved in the production - from the writer to the director to the actors - are playing for keeps, giving it their best. That doesn't happen here - everyone seems to be "phoning it in".
Uncertainty (2008)
Uncertainty of Style and Purpose
Others have thoroughly synopsized this film so I won't repeat what's been said. What struck me was the lopsided feel and disunity of the whole enterprise. The stories in the two alternate-universe flip-of-a- coin worlds do not really complement or enrich each other; rather each destroys what momentum the other has built. In addition neither thread is particularly compelling in itself, and switching from one to the other does not make them more so. As others have said, the two principals do fine - Lynn Collins in particular is an actress I would love to see get more significant roles (she was excellent as Portia in the Michael Radford version of "Merchant of Venice" with Al Pacino as Shylock), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt has charm and believability. However they are stranded in an unconvincing dual narrative. Perhaps in addition to improvising their dialog (as they did) they should have been allowed to scrap and rewrite the entire scenario! Many people have mentioned the similarity to the movie "Run Lola Run". I am surprised no one mentioned a film entitled "Sliding Doors" starring Gwyneth Paltrow that, while not a masterpiece, utilized the same alternate-universe framework to better effect.