Psyfkyn Daniel
The trailer really got me into watching this movie. I like the idea of memory traveling, the casts, the vibe that the movie gave, the settings, and John's personal problem. I think this movie had a potential. However, towards the end there are some unexplained plots. It would be great if the movie also gave the detail for characters like: "mousey", the 3 girls, and John's wife so that people don't have to speculate or search for the movie detail.
NateWatchesCoolMovies
Mindscape, given the less tantalizing title 'Anna' upon release, is a thinking person's thriller, and perhaps a little bit too much so. In the near future, or perhaps some alternate reality, some humans have evolved into pseudo clairvoyants who can enter the memories of other people and interact with their subjects within them. This talent has been trademarked by law enforcement, who employ 'memory detectives' to psychologically resolve conflict or retrieve otherwise out of reach information. Mark Strong is one such man, but his talents have dimmed a bit following the deaths of his family and a crippling stroke. Hauled out of retirement by his former boss (Brian Cox, sly as ever), he finds himself tasked with navigating the labyrinthine mind of Anna (Taissa Farmiga) a girl accused of murder and deemed a potential sociopath pending diagnosis. The film is deliberately dense and elliptical, not standard Hollywood fare at all, which is nice to see, but it also trips just a little bit on its own cognitive aspirations, especially in the third act. It's one of those pieces that's less like The Cell, and more like Vanilla Sky or Danny Boyle's Trance (two absolute favourites of mine) where so much of the story wades through muddy mindgames that at a certain point we think to ourselves 'well who's to say if any of this is actually real if it's gotten so complex', and indeed it's very difficult to piece together what has transpired here, especially with a conclusion that would require multiple viewings to even get an inkling. It's stylish as all hell though, given a clinical, steely grey palette punctuated by flourishes of startling red to show the capacity for violence lurking just out of sight within the opaque and enigmatic human psyche. The acting is top tier as well; Strong is reliably committed and intense, Farmiga is deeply disconcerting as the most fascinating and ambiguous character, showing blossoming talent that I look forward to seeing more of, while Cox steals his scenes as per usual. The film trips over itself a few times and like I said, overly convoluted, but it's one mesmerizing effort for the most part, albeit after a second or third viewing.
kosmasp
It's always tough for a movie that tries to twist its way into your brain (no pun intended), to be 100 % successful. Still this has the actors to pull things off quite nicely. Mark Strong especially and Brian Cox in a smaller role are able to convey a very crazy idea to the viewer. You could say the idea is "far out".But good science fiction is always bending boundaries. And the tapping into someones mind thing is not really new. There is more on the story that is apparent on the surface of course and there is a running theme, that is too obvious, but maybe a bit too much, if you think about it after watching the movie. Decent effort, but not really great
edwagreen
A first class stinker of the worst ever. This memory detective is hired by someone to see what's going on with this absolutely brilliant, but totally disturbed 16 year old. The girl comes from an unbelievably wealthy family.We're introduced to her mother and step-father, both of whom have hang-ups of their own. They should have been included more in this terrible yarn. We have going back sequences to jog the memory and to be honest with you, they make little to any sense.Our detective has his own problems-his wife killer herself after their baby died after birth.This Anna is conniving and turns the tables on our detective. Naturally, he winds up accused of her murder. The abrupt ending to this nonsense made no sense whatsoever.
AD
