Peter Pluymers "Welcome to paradise boys. This is Coldwater. I am Colonel Frank Reichert, United States Marine Corps, retired. You can call me Colonel. You can call me sir. It's up to you. The choice is yours. Life here, gentlemen, is very simple. Let's not bullshit each other. You're here because you f*cked up. We're here to fix that. So, you show me that you have a willingness and desire to change. Simple as that.""Coldwater" eventually evolved into a rather impressive and hard pruning drama in which the existence of so-called re-education camps in the US are denounced. The film isn't based on an actual true story (I guess), but is an outline of how things are done in such disciplinary camps that actually exist there and where the shown practices are applied daily. These places are rather prison camps where humiliation is a standard instead of re-education. The objective is more like a psychological torture of young people who end up there, with the sole purpose to get them back on the right track before they risk an actual prison sentence. The juveniles are sent there at the insistence of the parents to guide them into a better and controlled life without crime. But I'm afraid some youngsters end up there because parents are fed up with them or are in the process of picking up their own miserable lives without a reluctant and rebellious child. This is proved by the presence of a sniveling chubby kid who was send over there because he got bad grades in school and did some ditching.We see Brad Lunders (PJ Boudousqué) being lifted from his bed in the middle of the night, being handcuffed and dumped in a van between some other victims, while his mother looks at it with a face scarred by guilt. And before he knows it he arrives in camp "Coldwater", led by the former marine Colonel Frank Reichert (James C. Burns) who believes in certain values like discipline and disciplinary penalties for indiscipline. It's obvious that some practices aren't really kosher and are being covered with the cloak of charity. Reichert is assisted by trustees : young men who also ended up there once and voluntarily, or perhaps forcibly, choose to participate in the re-education of young offenders. This place somewhere in the middle of nowhere is like hell on earth for these internees and can be compared to a prison camp from the 2nd World War. Perhaps the applied tortures aren't as horrible as those in that period, but the impact of it on these young people is indisputable. Similarly for Brad who realizes that he can only survive by accepting this rotten system and realizes it's best to fit the straitjacket prescribed by the sadistic camp leader.I'm sure this will be repeated indefinitely, but Boudousqué eerily resembles Ryan Gosling. Not only his physical appearance but also his style of acting is the same as that of Gosling. That stoic calmness he exudes, that serene facial expression showing how he assesses each situation and the determination with which he concentrates on the intended goal. But despite his angelic appearance he's not unconditional innocent. In terms of character he differs at first sight considerably with the character of Burns. But on second thoughts they are more alike than you'd expect : they both suffer from a traumatic experience out of the past and they both have leadership qualities. And despite that Brad hates the Colonel and wants to pull the rug out from underneath him , he could definitely become someone like him."Coldwater" was a terrific movie to watch, despite the sometimes uncomfortable scenes. Perfectly imaged, at the right pace. Vincent Grashaw intuitively developed this difficult story. Without realizing, a period of 2 years elapsed subtly punctuated by several flashbacks which gave us an insight into the life of Brad. Certainly not in a disturbing way and brought in a fluid manner. And the moment you conclude that it's apparently a typical moralizing film, the final denouement hits you like a sledgehammer. A discharge of pent-up anger and frustration that degenerates into a chaotic situation full of rage and revenge. Ultimately the film leaves you with mixed feelings. As soon as the situation became clear, there's a sense of compassion and you sympathize with the youngsters who try to survive in these inhumane conditions. By the end this feeling is still reverberating, but perhaps some of them really belonged there. I'm sure these situations don't occur everywhere as shown here. However, it is better to avoid such a place as "Coldwater".More reviews here : http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be

kosmasp If this is your first "prison" movie (though they wouldn't like to be called that, since they are special in holding youth criminals and re-educating them), you might like this even better than others on this page. There is obviously things happening that shouldn't occur, neither in that facility nor in the "real" world. But with great power comes ... mostly people abusing that power.This training camp is made to better people with methods that don't seem to add up. The actors are really good at conveying their current mood and their goal in this. Sometimes this seems like a documentary and obviously this seems close to a real event as it gets.

nakamurak46 My wife and best friend went to Pasadena to see this movie over the weekend without any preconceived notions. We were rewarded with a rich and deeply-emotional story that backfilled the plot at just the right moments to reveal teenagers who got in trouble only to experience more serious abuse, murder, and betrayal from the very rehabilitation and juvenile reform camps designed to "correct" their behavior. Lunders' character was played brilliantly in the portrayal of a teenager knowingly doing wrong, getting caught, and then forced to blend his survival instincts with an undertow of defiance while imprisoned.Was the movie entertaining? Not in the classical sense. But more importantly it conveyed a message that forces the larger examination of the black box of private,for-profit, pseudo-correctional institutions for juveniles in this country. This message still resonates with us several days after seeing the movie. Great film making!

C.H Newell I'd been waiting to get a glimpse of Coldwater for some time; this afternoon, I finally got my chance. There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this film. We see the tale of a young man named Brad who, after some unfortunate incidents in his life (he is certainly at fault- there are no real attempts to gloss over his character in the beginning), is sent away to one of those youth rehabilitation camps, or better yet boot camps, like the ones you used to see on Maury back in the day. Once there, he realizes not only does he have to deal with what he's done in his life, but he also has to try and contend with the ex-colonel who runs the camp and the string of young psychotics he's given some authority to so they can help run the place. It's brutal at times, harsh. It speaks to what is going on today. People act like, oh poor privileged kids are sent to a camp where they're yelled at, big deal- just because it's not a war torn country these kids are in, just because they're not poor and starving, it does not make their plight any less real. These things are truly going on in life. No young person, regardless of their tendencies towards criminal behaviour, should be stabbed with keys, or beaten, or whipped, tortured in any fashion. This film speaks to many things going on around the world in the name of helping others, especially wayward youths.Mainly the acting really does it for me. The young man who plays Brad is wonderful, and I thought he did a great job throughout the entire film. Many of the young guys who had a significant amount of screen time really were spot on. James C. Burns did an amazing job of bringing to a life a real menace. Not only was the colonel character awful, he seemed to enjoy being awful, and it can't be easy for an actor to get into that sort of thing. Though the colonel is a bad man, it's interesting to see the character go through his own inner turmoil; one particular scene has him drinking Jack Daniels, puffing a cigar, chasing some of the young men he's charged with rehabilitating while they jog in front of him, and laughing himself to death. It's really raw, disturbing stuff.The end of the film is what essentially put this from 7 to an 8 stars out of 10 for me. I imagined it would come to a very different close, but about 10-15 minutes left I realized it was going somewhere a little further. It was intense, and really got to me. The end comes as bittersweet- Brad comes to terms with what he has done in the past by doing something that needed to be done in the present. I really don't want to ruin it, so I'll say no more. Great performances, pretty nice story, and the cinematography was well done. Highly recommend giving it a watch, especially if you enjoy prison-type stories; though this is more youth offenders, still along the same sort of fare.