If thrillers can teach you anything, it’s not to take your fellow travelers with you. Who will be a good-natured stranger in appearance? So the "Curve Line" decides to fix this simple truth in a rather faded and relatively mundane form.
It all begins with a girl named Mallory, who exclusively out of the kindness of her soul decides to give a ride to a strange stranger. However, no bells in the head of the heroine for some reason do not ring, word for word, and now the car flies off a cliff, Mallory is trapped, and the strange stranger fully manifests his schizophasic nature.
Most of the tape is a chamber thriller with elements of survival. A stranded girl tries to survive in her own overturned car, having a rather meager supply. The periodically appearing maniac presses only psychologically, mocking the helpless hungry victim by eating burgers. Only by the end of the “Curve Line” takes on more familiar outlines of films about psychopathic travelers, adding a little dynamics, hide-and-seek and other charms.
In principle, the picture looks quite tense. I will not say anything about the realism, but I am still tormented by vague doubts that a person stuck for several days in one position, and even with a bleeding leg, will look as cheerful as a heroine. Well, all the same, not on secret documents, the film was shot, so that is excusable as an artistic assumption.
However, the “Curve Line” has another problem – the film is simply not remembered. The tape has nothing to stand out against the background of such projects, the picture lacks some highlight. That doesn’t make the movie bad in the end, but it just ends up leaving no colorful characters, no memorable scenes, nothing behind. Medium tape, albeit with good potential.
The plot of the film is trivial. A lonely girl Mallory rides down the highway in a jeep, behind her has a stormy city life filled with bustle and events, to which the main character does not really want to return. So she turns left, into the wilderness, where the roadside motel should be. But her car is dead. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a guy named Christian comes to her rescue, who only looks so polite and courteous. After fixing the car, the girl out of the kindness of her heart decides to give him a ride.
The story is more like the movie “127 Hours”. The girl gets stuck and cannot get out of the car. The girl's futile attempts to free herself, etc. And so, most of the timekeeping is sluggish conversations with Christian and feeding on foot food. Interesting? Well, that's weird. The acting is good, but the plot ... the lack of drive and sluggishness of events make watching boring. The passing sheriff is shown to be stupid and careless. How can you turn your back on a stranger, a possible suspect, while still standing on the edge of a cliff? Oh, those American policemen in the movies.
As a result, the way Mallory is released raises more questions than answers, since the mechanism of liberation has not been shown to us. I never saw it happen. Which means I don't. In the film “127 hours” everything was logical and clear with the release of the hero, and here it seemed that it was just necessary to move to the final stage of the movie. Quite predictable, by the way. Devoid of the effect of surprise and drama. As a result, it turned out average, boring and simple passing film about dangerous fellow travelers on the road.
3 out of 10
Once quite famous director Ian Softley shot in the early 2000s the psychological drama "Planet Ka-Pex" (2001) and the mystical thriller "The Key to All Doors" (2005) - tapes, each of which is an excellent example in its genres. However, then he greatly spoiled his reputation, shooting family fiction "Ink Heart" (2008), loudly failed at the box office. The curve is another attempt by the director to regain the respect and affection of Hollywood, unfortunately, also not quite successful.
This tape turned out to be a sequential combination of "Companion" (introductory part of "Line"), "127 hours" (main timekeeping) and "Funny Games" (last 15 minutes). Hence the central disadvantage of the film is that it is not original at all and does not even try to be so anywhere. “Line” is presented as a psychological thriller, but in reality it is more of a feminist drama (by the way, quite decent) with elements of a thriller. In addition, the tape has a sufficient number of contrived and illogical actions of the characters.
The central actors in the film are two - the main character, played by Julianne Hough and a fatal companion performed by Teddy Sears. They will not show us anything outstanding in terms of acting, both played quite standardly, without tearing and replaying, and there are no claims to their game as such, as there is no admiration.
And yet, despite a sufficient number of shortcomings, the film looks with some interest, in some places even tense and in principle, in order to pass the Sunday evening may well be suitable.
The curve line is a good, but too straightforward and not a drop of original meditative chamber drama in the main time, with small intersperses of a boring, but banal psychological thriller.
5.5 out of 10
Demand creates supply. This undisguised truth is known to everyone, and therefore here and now are made films that are very popular with the mass audience. Superhero movies, parody movies, cool action movies where the laws of logic and common sense violate everyone who is not lazy, well, remakes. Oh yes, the latter, despite the fact that they receive angry criticism in their address, enjoy noticeable popularity and usually pay for themselves. Indeed, the younger generation could simply not see the original film, and the generation that is already in the years will want to know what was filmed there and what was turned into a movie from their childhood. So it's fair. Relatively. Movies about survival in extreme conditions are popular. It's no joke, such films usually tell about urban residents who got out into nature and got into a bind. That is, anyone can be in the place of the hero, and therefore it is interesting to know how he or she will get out of the mess, well, or not get out, here is how lucky. That’s only with the relative popularity of this genre of films on this topic was shot oh, as little. Again, there is nothing surprising here, because such films take an hour and a half, and it is very difficult to make it so that the viewer watched with interest the misadventures of the hero who was in the coffin, well, or stuck in a rock ledge. Here, after all, the atmosphere of hopelessness must be maintained and made so that the hero has to himself from the very first minutes, and any budget is still needed. If not for red ketchup, at least for trained predators. A large and hungry cat is the solution to all problems. And someone manages to make such films, others ... yeah. Other directors mix several different genres into their film, hoping to distract the viewer from the emptiness that is both the plot of the film and the main character. Alas, “The Curved Line” is just such a movie. A film that had good potential, but which was never realized.
Mallory, taking a car from a friend, drives down a deserted road in hopes of catching up to his own wedding. Why didn’t she decide to go on a plane? The million-dollar question, but I'll assume she's just afraid of heights. Other options are better not to consider otherwise the scenario will crack at the seams immediately. So, Mallory's car breaks down and, as a result, in this very spot, the cell phone refuses to pick up the signal. Hey, stop giggling! All modern horror stories and thrillers begin with this. Well, such films begin with the fact that the heroine must face a nice, kind and strong young man who will certainly help her and will not even ask for anything in return. Just a treasure, not a man. And how did he end up on a deserted road alone, without food or water? Okay, stop. It's only been five minutes since the movie started, and I'm already gloating. This is something that is not good for anything, so it is worth continuing. So, Mallory, charmed by the gallantry of a tramp named Christian, decides to throw the latter to the nearest settlement. Bad idea? Of course not! After all, any self-respecting killer maniac will not behave like an ordinary psychopath. He's going to behave like a decent member of society, you know, at least Hannibal Lector or John Harvey. They'll confirm. So Christian turns out to be another psychopath, so stupid, well, or self-confident that he forgets to buckle up, and therefore Mallory, seeing the true face of the “travel companion”, presses the gas pedal to the point and the car ... falls off a cliff. It would seem that an explosion should follow, in the best traditions of militants from the eighties, where cars exploded from any, even the most minor damage, but alas, this does not happen. Instead, Mallory's leg gets stuck in the car, while Christian flew through the windshield and feels just fine. I believed Jack Slater in The Last Movie Hero, the bad guys always die when faced with a hard surface. Is Arnold Schwarzenegger's hero coming out? Well, you can't trust anyone.
All right, it's all giggles, but that's not the problem. The problem is that Mallory will sit in the car for several days, not even trying to get out, but only drinking water from one plastic bottle. No, stretching the water is great, but the creators of this film have thought at least once, what happens to a person who has a damaged leg and the wound bleeds, I’m not talking about the numerous cuts and abrasions on the hands and head from which blood will also ooze at first? The body will lose fluids very quickly and you need to somehow compensate for this, so stretching one small bottle of water for three days will not work, like not trying. It will be spent very quickly, especially by a man who has never made it out of town, which Mallory is no doubt. All right, it's all polemics, but it all comes down to time again. Mallory, being a prisoner in a car only once a day, performs some action, whether it is to search the bag of her failed killer or try to find a mobile phone. It seemed to me that the fundamental goal of any person in such a situation is to get out of such a delicate situation. But Mallory is in no hurry.
Well, so that we are not bored, sometimes Christian will appear, who will communicate with a girl. Moreover, the atmosphere does not heat up in any way, there is no tension inherent ... at least to the same “Victim”, which, although not a model film, but could boast at least an atmosphere. She's not here. And Christian throws from the fire and into the flames, then he is a sexual maniac, or he is John Kramer, at least trying to adhere to the philosophy of “Constructor”. But that’s the only thing that is mutually exclusive and Christian looks not like a dangerous killer, but like an incompetent idiot, which he is, in fact.
Outcome? The idea of a girl captured by an overturned car and a maniac wandering nearby turned out to be a puff. There is no atmosphere and no budget in the film, so we have to take our word for it if we are told that the characters were badly injured. The camera periodically shakes, and the logic in this film did not even appear. It's a boring and bland movie. Which does not save even a good performance of the two leading actors, if only because they have nothing to play.
3 out of 10
Not the most pleasant feeling is to find yourself in an inverted, twisted SUV, with a leg stuck under the chair. A risky attempt was made at the failed newlywed Mallory to get rid of the traffic maniac, who easily managed to charm the girl and squeeze into her fellow travelers. And now there's no escape. Bastard Christian is able only to mock the hapless stuntwoman, the water supply quickly dries up, and the disfigured body does not intend to let out of its metal embrace pretty captive. There are few chances to survive, but Mallory decides to fight, using what little she has left in a critical situation - a sane head.
Putting someone in a passenger seat is a dangerous undertaking, it was proved by Rutger Hauer thirty years ago. However, the “Curve Line” does not copy the plot moves of the “Traveler”, for nothing that the maniac of a pleasant appearance turned out to be a stereotypical “bad guy”. Under the production patronage of Jason Bloom in recent years, a great variety of thrillers has been released, and the tape of Ian Softley starts as a completely original action that can not get lost in the general unexpressive background. With the help of simple elements like telephone conversations of the main character with her younger sister and future husband, it is possible to understand her character and the fact that the girl is not too different from various lovers to look for adventures on a seductive ass. Mallory’s naivety in communicating with a random benefactor Christian, who managed to fix her car, of course goes off the scale, but maniacs are dangerous because they know how to win over to themselves. The result of a fleeting acquaintance is known - the girl is desperately fighting for her life and simultaneously fighting off the harassment of a smug villain.
“Curve Line” pleases with solid directing, good acting and beautifully selected landscapes. The pessimistic tone of the film helps to concentrate the audience’s attention. Let the girl herself call trouble, but you sympathize with her, because in her place there could be a more reasonable person. In the heat of events, the director made a couple of noticeable blunders, like the sudden amnesia of the heroine, who did not use the horn of the car when a policeman approached, but a couple of hours ago the signal was in full swing. But these are small things that are forgiven for a low-budget thriller, but Softley for some reason decided to follow the footsteps of colleague Wes Craven in his “Night Flight” and cut the fabric of the picture in two. The second half of "Curve Line" is a stereotypical slasher that has nothing to do with the tragic spirit hovering over a wrecked car. The desire of the director to arrange the heroine with a maniac, obviously, is dictated by the genre, but the film quickly loses its unique features, turning into a primitive horror story.
The director, meanwhile, tried to make the film different from the numerous analogues more commercially successful. Semantically, "The Curved Line" is similar to "127 Hours" by Danny Boyle, but sprinkling original details like rat meat for dinner to a tortured captive adds a specific charm to the Softley tape. Often the idea is repeated that the girl is on her own in this situation. These words are the most valuable thing that Teddy Sears’ hero pleased, otherwise his Christian was the victim of a not too inventive script that provided for several very boring dialogues. At the same time, Softley was also noted for the successful use of the immortal hit from the band Roxette. Mallory really has to listen to her heart, as the corresponding composition prescribes for her, and for the heroine there is an absolute plus that in the heat of righteous hatred she retained human traits.
Naivety often requires payment at the most expensive rate, but people still will not stop making stupid mistakes that could have been avoided. Ian Softley’s tape is far from philosophical postulates, but it carries a very reasonable subtext – you should think ten times before prolonging a casual acquaintance. Spin the director thread from the tangle of survival to the very end, and “Curveline” would become a prominent pet in the brood of producer Jason Bloom. This did not happen because of the untimely desire of the creators to cover related areas, but the cinema remains quite a wealthy work, suitable for fans of various horrors, and for nostalgic for the old evil “Padmitschik”, or just for casual viewers who decided to find out whether the bride who was fond of traveling will get to her groom.
Imagine you start to watch "Companion", smoothly go to "Buried alive" and are there the lion's share of your time, and end "Funny games". Anyone who has watched these films will agree that there is not much in common between them.
But this is perhaps the strongest side of the film "The Curve Line", where the director Ian Softley, who by the way gave the cinema a wonderful "Planet Ka-Pex", glues together three different directions of the thriller, and it is worth admitting, looks quite attractive. The film also has a good visual side, indicating the scant resources of the project, but it is performed as efficiently as possible.
However, the film is nothing new besides its design. The plot throws a few tricks regarding the upcoming wedding of the main character and the personal life of the villain, but they largely have little impact on the main story of the film.
Given the fact that in the genres of “traps”, “sinister fellow travelers” has already been said enough, this film is largely inferior to its higher-quality prototypes. Perhaps, if the authors managed to invite more famous actors to the screen, the impression would be more positive, and so the film is without any ambition.
5 out of 10
Psychological thriller "Curve Line" clearly makes it clear that it is not always necessary to listen to your heart, as sung in the undoubtedly wonderful song Roxette.
Young Malory Rutledge goes to meet her family happiness. Her path runs through the deserted mountainous areas of Denver and she rushes towards a happy family life - the thing is that she decided to move to another city, and at the same time to get married. “Listening to her heart,” she decides to turn off the track either to a national park, or just to a place where you can admire the beauty of the wild nature of the United States, where she meets Christian – a seemingly pleasant young man, whom, as it turned out, she met. It doesn’t bode well...
The girl will face a real psychopath, whose favorite occupation is sadism and watching how other people suffer. Mallory will find herself in a not very pleasant situation and will be, in a literal sense, squeezed by circumstances that will put her on the brink of life and death.
I will not describe the minuses and pros here, look for inaccuracies and admire the stupidity of the creators, but I will begin with the fact that I, like some other users, thought it strange that she, having spent a N-th amount of time in the position and state in which she found herself, did without serious consequences. Although, maybe this fact remained behind the scenes and the consequences “surfaced” after the main actions of the film. As my mother likes to say, this is a movie. "Curve Line" does not claim to be a tape shot on real events and the creators have the right to fantasize.
Come on, "it's a movie." Another thing, here you can learn a couple of good lessons and hack on your nose that some actions can become wrong.
1. It is not always necessary to give in to a fleeting impulse and "listen to your heart" - on emotions it can prompt incorrectly.
2. Do not mess with strangers wandering alone on the highway. You never know who you’re going to pick up and what game they’re going to want to play.
3. If your life is painted a few years ahead, again, a fleeting passion or an affair can bury what you have been going for so long.
4. Do not lose faith in your own strength - in extreme situations, along with a state of shock, you can commit inhuman actions that will save your life.
"Curve Line" is a film - a story primarily about the strength of the spirit and endurance of a person, about what he or she is capable of in the case when the issue of life and death is solved. When there is nowhere to retreat a person is capable of incredible deeds and his survivability depends only on what keeps him in this world and how much he or she wants to look into the eyes of relatives again.
Naturally, Ian Softley's painting is hard to compete with "127 Hours" Danny Boyle, after all, the tape with James Franco took place in reality and there the main character, IMHO, was in much more deplorable circumstances and paid an extremely high price for his carelessness. However, I will not say that “The Curved Line” is a film that is not suitable for contemplation. On the contrary, the film is quite intense and interesting.
But look at you. I do not impose my opinion on anyone.
Life is full of amazing and unexpected events that await us at every turn. Some events we can easily predict, but sometimes something happens that literally changes our lives. So much so that we could not have imagined anything like this. Here and similar events could not predict an ordinary girl Mallory, who went to her sister’s wedding across several states in her car suddenly became a participant in a dangerous game of survival. A survival game that puts her own life at stake.
It may seem that the plot is nothing special, and the film itself is essentially an ordinary representative of the genre of an action thriller or even a horror film (each viewer decides under the effect of his own fright), but the film certainly saves an unexpected narrative format. After all, in fact, this film directed by Ian Softley is a kind of hybrid of the “Victim” with Adrian Brody in the title role and a typical slasher about a maniac killer. As if the creators of the tape took and combined two completely different content of the picture into something single. But at the same time, without significant damage to the content of the work.
The first half of the picture looks very interesting. This is certainly not “127 Hours” directed by Danny Boyle, but the director of the film “Ian Softley” is trying to withstand the first half as a full-fledged thriller about survival in incredible conditions. Thus, it is a similar claim to originality and holding a state of interest in what is happening on the screen throughout the tape. When you have already stepped into the territory of a typical slasher in the second half of the screen action, the film probably loses the acquired dignity balls. Although he is trying in every way to maintain dignity in the final credits.
Of course, the film is influenced by the marketing approach of producer Jason Bloom to the creation of his paintings. When spending on their films absolutely minimal budget, the film in any case pays off commercially. But if such a stingy approach to the creation of tapes gives the impression of the usual greed of the creators, then in this tape it is more convenient than ever. After all, it is this minimalism on the abundance of events, characters and the scale of the narrative that significantly distinguishes this film from all its counterparts in the genre.
I am pleased with the lead role. This is of course not Ellen Ripley from “Alien”, not Sidney Prescot from “The Scream” and not even the heroine of Jamie Lee Curtis from “Halloween”, but the performer of the leading role Julianne Hough quite confidently demonstrated on the screen the image of a strong woman. Along the way, it is quite interesting to demonstrate how her heroin is hardened and turned into a full-fledged fighter, which is ready to fight back against an opponent superior to her in terms of physical strength for the sake of survival. Much more caricatured looks the main villain of the tape in the performance of Teddy Sears, which creates the impression of an absolutely collective image of several villains from films of this genre. Including the main villain of the film “Traveler”, but certainly losing against the background of a more charismatic image created by actor Rutgar Hauer. Played in principle is not bad, but the motives of his character remained transparent, and the principle of action is incredibly chaotic. The character creates a rather ambiguous impression.
7 out of 10
The curved line is quite a strong representative of the genre of an action thriller. The film is perhaps not the best representative of the genre and not an ideal role model, but certainly captivating with an unusual style of storytelling and quite a strong production by director Ian Softley.
Despite not the most enthusiastic reviews, I liked the film. And if you ask me what, I'll tell you, the movie just looks like. That is how it looks with interest, some tension, and even with pleasure.
The curved line is quite a high-quality thriller, telling the story of a young girl trying to survive after meeting a charming (at first) maniac. The main feature of this thriller is the “static” nature of most of the confrontation between the maniac and the main character, who found herself in a kind of confinement in her own car. Left with a damaged leg, the girl is forced to survive for several days in a row, experiencing a lack of food and water and fear of helplessness before the visits of her tormentor. This part, rather than the final confrontation, seemed to me the most interesting in the film.
The main character plays well - her behavior, emotions and facial expressions are more than natural and justified. Thinking about why I liked the movie, I would like to highlight it as one of the most important factors. Another is the absence of dullness in the film, often inherent in paintings of this genre. Certain questions can cause only some moments of a physiological nature, to focus attention on which there was no special desire.
The maniac turned out so well – charming at first, not too bloodthirsty and cruel and not the most charismatic. His main motto is “we are always responsible for our own actions”, which guides the guy in relation to his victims.
The ending of the film is its "dynamic" and shortest part - the final stage of the confrontation, which seemed more banal and less interesting compared to the main part of the film. However, this is also a matter of taste, which everyone has different.
Bottom line: not a masterpiece, but quite a good thriller, tense and looking with interest. A movie that you can spend the evening with.
A regular DVD movie. Not bad or good. Sometimes boring: the first 50 minutes - and this is more than half of the timekeeping - looks half-eyed. In the script, at least one undisclosed plot idea is sewn up: first, the motivation of the villain is one, then another. The character of the main character is not disclosed at all - there were no flashbacks, quite expected for a movie of this format, nor the development of the character (just at some point there is a sharp change in behavior - it should be taken for granted).
This is all the more striking because most of the changes in the plot occur by chance: not by overcoming pain, disgust, fear, but by chance and outright luck. Accidentally, a suitable little thing fell into the pocket, accidentally something hit something and something third fell out as a bonus (also completely by accident). There was a piano here in every bush, and there are a lot of bushes.
Acting is about nothing. If you want to show how a person who has been hungry and dehydrated for a long time changes, watch Kristan Bale’s performance in The Engineer: then the actor lost weight to 50 kg (from 90!). “Curve” in this regard is much closer to “The Hunger Games”, when individual starving characters almost have second chins.
And finally, a completely stupid scene, for which the Saw was scolded. What the villain offers the heroine is physically impossible to do is guaranteed death. However, the laws of this universe are prescribed, as for most modern films, so as to correspond to the script.
Why am I not ready to call the movie bad? He's just not pretending to do anything. This is a regular movie for a DVD release, with no claims to originality. Once you look and forget, nothing else is needed.
I watched a lot of such films about survival in extreme situations, so I decided to sit at the blue screen in order to replenish my personal collection, especially the director of the picture was the man who shot “Planet Ka-Pex” and “The Key to All Doors”, very worthy works.
The girl got stuck in the car after a car accident, but this is not her main trouble - the traveler, who so kindly helped her, turned out to be a maniac, and even tenacious, after an unsuccessful race was left unharmed. Not only did nature treat heroin unfavorably, so even with his neighbor unlucky, a complete failure.
In fact, the girl deserved that and said her crazy companion. Of course, the man helped, but this does not mean that you need to put a man in your car, he did not ask, especially given the desert terrain. But it seemed to her not enough, driving past the agreed destination, she decided to take it to the victorious end, offering another joint lunch. Then he unsuccessfully, vulgarly joked, irritated by her availability and complete carelessness, meaningfully pulled out a knife and demanded to go further. He had not yet done anything maniacally - terrible, and the grandmother by her behavior caused one bewilderment, a headless chicken. Let it be a lesson like this.
The disaster itself, or rather the situation that followed, evoked one grin. The man for four days did not eat, did not drink much, and even the leg is stuck, in such a position that after twenty minutes it begins to tingle. Open wound, bleeding leg, gangrene provided... Its fantastic survival rate will surprise any viewer.
The film will not recommend for viewing, it is far from reality, very far that immediately and repeatedly catches the eye, and the frivolity of the girl, of course, can serve as a lesson, but for the sake of moralizing still do not suffer, it is not worth it, I assure you.
Don't waste your time!!
3 out of 10.
The description of the film did not arouse interest, but seeing that the director is the creator of “The Key to All Doors” and “Planets Ka-Pex” Ian Softley, I could not resist watching.
The beginning is prosaic. And standard. A young girl with an undrawn name, Mallory, saws her fiance's car on her own wedding. More precisely, the festive day is still a couple of weeks, and Madame with a calm conscience went on a long road to explore the surrounding area. What she expected there to see such a beautiful, I do not know – around either the wasteland or rocky hilly terrain with a minimum percentage of vegetation. But the time that she admired these unsightly landscapes was enough to understand that her fiancé was a beast. Not to her, but to the audience – a phone call from her sister, listening to an audio message from the groom, as well as finding pornographic items in the car clearly showed that the wedding was premature. However, it is quite difficult to say whether this had any effect on what happened next.
And then it's standard. The nice-looking guy who did her a favor turned out not to be so pleasant, but it was only revealed when she (what a surprise!) put him in her car. I could only think that somehow quickly the maniac appeared, but then events took an unexpected turn.
The car idea is cool. But it's too cinematic. We understand perfectly well that in reality this could not have happened - an incredible number of circumstances had to develop so successfully that she did not receive severe damage, and stuck, and the battery did not get damaged. In addition, some, sorry, physiological moments. In general, implausible, but nevertheless interesting. I did not notice how carried away and began to worry about Mallory.
There were still a few moments that prevented you from fully immersed in the experience:
A reference to "The Silence of the Lambs." The maniac offers an honest exchange - the girl will get what she needs if she tells something about herself. Very personal. Oh, come on! First of all, it was already done, and it was done better, and it was logically justified. Secondly, this did not fit into the concept of a maniac here. That’s why I’ve been hit hard.
- a reference to Saw. The unobtrusive offer to amputate the limb has already become a cult and has been played many times. Why again?
- escape from the trap. It's not as reliable as getting into it.
All the rest I must say that the film was not as bad as I saw at the beginning of the viewing.
As for the actors, in fact, this is a film of only two characters - Mallory and a maniac. The rest of the characters appear very briefly, and there are few of them at all. In this scenario, you inevitably pay more attention to the play of the main actors. There were strong professionals who could pull out this conflict. Julianne Hough (Mellori) did better than her partner, she was natural. But Teddy Sears (maniac) blundered, he failed to play the villain, it turned out just a man with a stone face. Unemotionality is not an option.
I wonder if it is a plus of the famous song of a famous band? Having a song in the film is a plus, but trying to squeeze a philosophy out of it for a maniac is rather a minus, so it is generally neutral.
If you like movies like “Traveler” and “Wow, the trip”, you can read this.
5 out of 10
Listen to your heart! It's not silent!
Your heart is screaming about my separation!
I don't know where or why you're going.
Listen to your heart or you will be lost.
Swedish band Roxette
The film "Curve Line" - a thriller directed by Ian Softley tells about ordinary road adventures that led to terrible and unpredictable consequences. A girl named Mallory goes to her fiancé in Denver and all the way is confused about her wedding. On the way, Mallory's car breaks down and she enlists the help of an unknown companion.
The film "Curve Line" is similar to many films in its genre. Some storylines reminded me of the famous Canadian film Saw (1 part) - a scene when a maniac gives Mallory, who has her leg clamped in the accident, a hacksaw and offers her to saw off her leg and then she can get out of the upside down SUV. This scene reminded me of Dr. Gordon from Saw (1). True, our esteemed Dr. Gordon drank off his leg, but Mallory still did not dare.
I'd like to celebrate the actors. Actress Julianne Hough was very persuasive in her role - kind and responsive. Actor Teddy Sears also made people believe he was good and bad. The characters and behavior of the characters changed dramatically during the film, the actors conveyed this well. The Curve Line is essentially a film by two actors. There was no one else in the picture.
I would also like to mention the musical accompaniment to the film – the song by the Swedish band Roxette “Listen to your heart”. The musical accompaniment approaches the thriller - where the main meaning of the film is in this song - people have to think about the consequences before they do anything, listen to their heart, to their intuition, what they will tell.
The name of film producer Jason Bloom is probably already known to a large number of people. This person takes on projects that, in principle, cannot be commercially successful, and he always benefits from it. It is also worth thanking him that promoting terrible horror tapes, which are not very successful with both viewers and critics, the proceeds of the tapes from them he successfully invests in such independent films as “Obsession”. The main problem with Bloom is that he takes too many tapes under his wing and, in the end, he does not pay enough attention to them. It was the same story that happened with the movie The Curve Line. Everything seen on the screen is simply overflowing with all sorts of stamps for such a genre, where a person is planted by a fellow traveler, and he turns out to be a maniac psychopath, whom you do not feed bread, just give someone to slice. We’ve seen this before and many times.
The plot of the film will affect a dazzling beauty named Mallory. She is soon to get married and therefore goes to Denver to his future husband. On the way, she still thinks if she needs this wedding, if he is doing the right thing, and tries to solve other problems in her head related to the upcoming ceremony. Suddenly her car breaks down. The girl is confused, because cars do not pass, she can not call a tow truck, there is hope that someone will still pass by. And oh my God, thank heavens, where can not come from, a tramp boy appears who decides to help the girl. He fixed the car, refused the money, Mallory wanted to give it a lift, but Christian (the name of the guy who did the favor) noblely rejected her offer. Then the girl did not insist, she pressed the gasi pedal and drove on. After driving 10 meters, she stops because her conscience does not allow her not to do a favor in return. As a result, Christian turned out to be Mallory’s companion, who soon lets her know that he is not going to break up with her so quickly.
The Curve Line is a very typical movie about road adventures that have terrible consequences. The very stylistics of the tape begins to resemble the film “Traveler” in 2007, because everything is tied up in almost the same way. Instead of a wet and busy highway, we see an empty road that runs into some wilderness, into which you can wander only by chance. And Christian’s face is revealed with a vulgar joke, and then, of course, he pulls out his big knife and begins to intimidate a blonde person who, as it turned out, does not intend to give up so easily to some psychopath. This part is called either horrors, or the thriller, in general, is not the essence, because then the creator went roundabout and decided to attract the audience’s attention on how this defenseless girl, after the accident, got stuck in her own car and she can not get out. Well, then the film begins to look like a boring version of “127 hours”, where instead of a stuck hand – a leg.
Much of the film's timekeeping ended up in the hands of Julianne Hough. She plays quite decently, that's just starting to get tired of her tedious game. With the development of the plot, she seems stiffened and plays stereotyped, or even does not know what to do herself. Immediately and affects the hand of Ian Softley, who made the film as if under the blueprint. Anyway, the director does not understand horror at all. He's always trying to add some little drama. Same thing with the main character. Yes, she is stuck in the car and only because of this should be scary, because what can be worse than getting stuck in the car and it is impossible to wait for help, and besides, somewhere walks a cold-blooded killer who would rather kill with a word than be able to cause physical pain. Unskillful acting of actors and easily perceptible absurdity of the whole situation do their job, and this destroys the pseudo atmosphere that the director so diligently created. A very strange and maniac killer, who has many terrible deeds behind his shoulders. For some reason, he diligently throws away his philosophy of life that all his victims are to blame for being in his hands, they made their own choice, he did not force them. Sounds, like, not bad, but how funny it says the actor who played the role of a maniac. The meaning of such a thought is extremely simple, but the creators have something tight with memory and they tell us this idea several times, and after all, one would be enough.
Should we expect something new from the film? Well, as you can see, no, you shouldn't. Although it is possible to look at the efforts of the heroine to get out of the death trap. How he finds hope where it is impossible to find it. In general, the tape is a mixture of a very large number of films that are thrown into one large pile and mixed. Apparently, the idea in the writers’ heads was better than on paper. Will the film be a commercial success? It is possible that the budget in the theaters will pay off twice, but the most hope should be placed on the release of DVDs. In the "home theater" things will go much better.
The plot is very similar in meaning to “Traveler”: an accidental innocent victim becomes the object of sophisticated bullying of a road maniac. It is impossible not to compare these films, because the analogy suggests itself.
Here the maniac turned out too cinematic, picturesque, he did not believe well. It is not clear what he wanted to achieve, it is not clear how he managed to remain free under his lifestyle. He's just a maniac inside this particular movie, in which he loved the suffering of people; life apart, cinema apart. The maniac's monologues and lines are meaningless because they didn't say anything about his personality or what he wanted. His actions were also chaotic and haphazard, not knowing where he would reappear or what to expect from him. The extent of his real danger and frostbite was not clear until almost the final. In general, such a murky and unsightly maniac, for three.
The actress in the lead role seems to have tried very hard. It looked good in almost every frame. It is a pity that the director made everything too primitive. So it was just a movie, without any connection to reality. By the way, this also includes the idea of the total defenselessness of the inhabitants in the face of a deadly threat from an outsider. In this film, the maniac easily coped with entire families alone and no one could offer worthy resistance. But there was a “lame duck” and an iron hand handled everything! After all the experience, deadly fatigue, fear and severe trauma, no one in an ordinary peaceful life would have climbed into such a hell of heroism. Cinema and Germans!
Conclusion. The film is weak, for viewing in half an eye will do. It is similar to "Businessman" but in fact did not even stand nearby.