THE TORTURED

THE TORTURED

THE TORTURED: B

I wanted so badly to give this movie an A, because it was so good on so many levels, but I had to drop it a full letter grade due to its ending. It was like watching a wrestling match where a kid is up 14-0, executing perfect technique and then suddenly makes one teeny, tiny mistake, winds up on his back and gets pinned. 

Not that the movie didn't have other flaws, but they were minimal in comparison to the bad ending that didn't ruin, but certainly put an ugly mark on the film. Cindy Crawford's noticeable mole, if you will. No matter how beautiful the face, you can't help but notice that one blemish.

The directing is what made this movie work as well as it did throughout 31/32nd's of the film. A mixture of scenes both long and short, transitioned throughout a well structured plot. The film had excellent build, speeding up and slowing down when and where it was needed. I felt these character's emotions of pain, regret, guilt, anger, vengeance and doubt.

The writing was good, but this is a rare occasion will I will say that weak points in the film's story were saved by exceptional directing. The yin/yang of good cop/bad cop, logical and rational vs on the verge of psychopathic rage seemed irrational and unlikely. One second the husband was the crazy one out to avenge his son's death as his wife was the voice of reason, and then the next second it was the other way around. They never met as one in the same, one was always the negative to the other's positive. It made for an interesting contrasts of interests, but I doubt it's realism.

That was really my only major problem with the film's overall writing.

Of course until I got to the end. I wrote a blog a while back about how horror, mystery and suspense, and Thriller films of the modern era suffer, and suffer greatly due to film's being more concerned with their shocking twist, than in simply telling a good story.

I can't say a good story wasn't told here, because it was, but the ending caused it to be much less memorable and special than it should have been.