halon8 This is a long film, but it uses the time well. It's a film about complex emotions and it does well to avoid clichés or oversimplify.Paul is a war journalist returning to his home after his father's death. The home he fled as a teenager. He forms a relationship with Celine, the daughter of his ex-girlfriend. When she disappears, he becomes a suspect.The reasons for his flight, his relationship with Celine and hidden family secrets are revealed slowly, with the timeline jumping around. But it's not difficult to follow if you give this film the attention it deserves.The acting is excellent and it was well cast. It's refreshing to see a film in which the female lead was a normal teenager not a supermodel.Unfortunately there were some scenes cut in the version I saw, which left me a little confused.It's difficult to understand why Paul doesn't tell the police the truth about his 'relationship' with Celine.

M A I enjoyed this movie very much. The story was great. The acting was great. The editing was great. The emotions were great. The way the story was told in various layers and twisted time was great. The scenery was great. This is the sort of suspense, psychological thriller that sets you thinking for hours after watching in order to put the various puzzle pieces together. Matthew MacFadyen did a marvelous job in living out the suppressed emotions and the loneliness of the main character. His performance was stunning and he fits the character completely and makes the audience feel his pain. It is such a huge loss that Brad McGann has left us. Would really really want to see many more from him as he is such a talented and meticulous man. May he rest in peace and this masterpiece of his will always be remembered. Probably one of the most under-appreciated movies of this century. Brad we miss you....

Marilou One of the most touching films I've seen in a long time, a complicated story that unwinds slowly but powerfully due the the directing and performances of the fine cast. This film really needs to be seen, it's been buried and badly handled in that it's not out there. I had the rare opportunity to see it at a special private screening...almost no one in the USA has seen it at all, in spite of heavy festival play. Emily Barclay who play the young girl and narrates much of the film is an emerging NZ talent in league with Keisha Castle-Hughes. Mathew McFayden gives a multi-layered and complicated performance as a man estranged from the family he left behind as a teenager. The casting is believable for every character and the audience is drawn into the story. Can you hear me Weinstein Brothers-- someone needs to pick this one up and run with it!

veganerd666 Well I've just had the sheer pleasure to this great piece of cinema, at a festival in Leipzig, Germany. And by pure chance, too. Despite of me being a big fan of NZ and having traveled allover the place, I still only went in, because Scoop, the new Woody Allen was sold out. And it couldn't have been better, I promise. Just as one expects, the scenery just never fails to make you smile and just wanting to be there immediately. It lures you into it. So one may be quick to wonder, why someone would ever want to leave such a beauty, as our main character. But every beauty has it's dark side and it's secrets. Not only since Mr. Lynch do we know, that quiet and nice small places, in very beautiful sceneries, are in fact bound to hide some of the most ugly and best kept secrets of them all. Here they all seem to circle round his fathers den, the black hole. This place is an of the author brilliantly thought-out thing and for the story serves as a wormhole to travel in time, as well as a simple eye of the storm, around which everything seems to circle for the main characters. So the story slowly begins to unravel before us and very slowly puts the pieces of the true story and it's meaning together. But with each step forward it needs to go further back to bring us closer to the next question and maybe the truth. Even though it is not Memento or Waking Life, it still takes some of our own thinking and action as an audience, to actually put the pieces together, although it's a beautifully simple plot line and a not too complex story. This is were you can see how great it really is. How tightly written and well working it is and how awesome each and every character is portrayed as well as played. And if a den can be portrayed just as well, with an actual feel and real character and thoughts of wonders and dreams and wishes, that every boy or girl would love to call their own, here is one. Finally, it seems to put them all back in their places, even if they tried to run away or hide, from it's unbelievable truth. So this is not a feelgoodmovie or easygoing popcorn fun, it's a very touching and tender, yet tight and gripping film, that deals with the depressions and psychology, in it's very own and special, delicate way. Sadness will prevail. If you like anything about Requiem for a Dream, Mystic River, Virgin Suicides or 21 grams. please go see this movie if you can. As I have learned, tonight was the test for it's European release, so in the very near future it will be on the screen in Europe, at least. And yes by the way the soundtrack is also very good and Patty Smith never felt more healthy and well misplaced. Good on ya ma-tee!