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Overall Rating : 2/10
Directed By : David Ocanas
Poppy Montgomery (Without a Trace (TV) )
Adam Kaufman (Altered)
Jose Yenque
Danny Pino
Supplied By : PorchLight Entertainment
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : April. 14, 2008
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| PLOT Nadine hasn't had a decent night's rest since her sister disappeared. And it doesn't get much better when she travels solo to Tijuana to find her. Nadine's attempts to unravel the truth about this vanishing cause her to question her own sanity. |
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| THE REVIEW In the film, BETWEEN, we meet a young woman named Nadine Roberts, who recently has been having reoccurring dreams, of whom or what, she is unsure of. A short time later, she receives word that her estranged sister has gone missing in Tijuana Mexico. So in search of her, Nadine, leaves her husband James behind and heads to Tijuana in search of her. The search would turn out to be a difficult one, as when she gets there, it seems that, either no one knows anything, or the ones that seem to know something(including a Police Detective), are not so willing to help out. In the course of her search for Diane, the weird happenings, keep happening, this includes waking up in a strange hotel, or even stranger.....people begin to refer to Nadine as her missing sister Diane. With more than a few people contributing to Nadine's confusion, Nadine herself begins to question the meaning of the mysterious dreams and reality itself - it's a story of "Is it real, or is it Memorex", so to speak. After seeing this film, I am guessing that the moral of BETWEEN is that there is "life after death". The moral of the whole thing is simple enough, but it sure does take a few bumpy roads in it's task to get to it, complete with "twists", a slow pace, and a lot, for the lack of a better word, nonsense. For it's entire runtime, BETWEEN plays out as one mystery, and despite the mystery themed film you might expect it to be, when I say mystery, I am meaning mystery in the literal sense. I say this because almost from the film's beginning, BETWEEN is a confusing mess, with a general goal in mind, with no idea how to get there. BETWEEN is, from what I understand a film that premiered on the LIFETIME network, and although it is not entirely the type of film that would usually air on the said channel, it does in fact have that "made for TV" feel. The film does feel like a made for TV effort in story and execution, as it stays pretty much within the boundaries, and is safe. With the story, it is, I assume meant to be shocking, but in my opinion it never crosses the line to do so. Most of the film's padding(middle) merely consists of a woman who is basically having a mental break down, while looking for answers when it comes to her sister's disappearance. Sure there are people she meets people and events that occur that should aid in the progression and clarity of the film, but all of that is wasted when the main character is put through a series of "déjà vus", in which her encounters with are repeated and repeated again. These reoccurrences, which are meant to be revealing, do little of that, but instead add one more tangled to the incoherent plot. In the end when the meaning and purpose of the film is revealed to us, honestly, it doesn't come as much of a shock but it still remains confusing due to the overly complicated script that was the setup. In the end, BETWEEN is a film, that if you say too much about it in a review like this one, it will ultimately ruin the twist ending, which is truly the only thing the film has to rely on. With that said, at the same time, not being able to say much about a film, leads me to the difficult task of trying to explain it without spoiling a film for those who have yet to see it. | ||||
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| GORE
METER 1/10 All that I seem to remember is a bloody and bruised corpse. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 3/10 The score was decent, but not anything that really stood out and on it's own. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Overall, I do think that the idea behind BETWEEN is a good one, and could've possibly been a better film if it would've had a less complicated script that wasn't trying too hard to be clever or shocking. |
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