GONE. THIN ICE.

There are times when a movie is just a movie: entertaining, predictable, shallow but quenching one’s thirst for diversion. A film not worthy of massive movie discussion groups; intense analytical dissection, preposterous, pondering, pontification. Just elementary, mindless fare.

“Gone” starring Amanda Seyfried is the perfect antidote for jet lag, escape from the ubiquitous, dunning, recurring chores of every day existence.  Ms. Seyfried plays “Jill Parrish” a young woman with psychological problems resulting from an alleged kidnapping; she works the night shift in a seedy diner and returns home to find her sister “Molly”  missing. Hence, commences her solo vigilante crusade to find her sister before she is slain by her abductor; Jill is convinced the same perpetrator who took her, has Molly. 

A thriller, bland in comparison to many,( “Gone Baby Gone”, “Taken”) holds your attention because of the intensity of Ms. Seyfried’s skill in her convincing portrayal of a woman determined to find her sister before the last grain of sand disappears from the hour glass.

TWO & 1/2 STARS!! 

 

THIN ICE

Just for the fun of it put this one on your list. Greg Kinnear is exhilarating as a conniving insurance agent “Mickey Prohaska” slowly succumbing to moral and financial turpitude; looking for the big score, in all the wrong places; Kinnear is incredulous, hypnotic in his characterization. The scintillating cast includes: Alan Arkin, Billy Crudup, Lea Thompson, David Harbour.

The setting, in the relentless and unforgiving winter of the Northern Plains, enhances the development of these strange, disparate, desperate souls; souls whose weirdness defines their suffering and strength, unique portrayals, one is unlikely to forget, or ever yearn to meet.

“Thin Ice” challenges the critic to curtail copious commentary, allowing the viewer to experience the revelations, surprises, the unexpected as the filmmakers intended. Sisters Jill and Karen Sprecher wrote (Jill directed) this quirky, pleasurable and ultimately satisfying film.

THREE STARS!!!

For Now…………Peneflix