paul-ayres-60784 Once you start watching this film you have to see it through to the end. It draws you in with a very strange tale which twists and turns and keeps you routed to the screen. The acting from the 3 main characters is superb. Emily Blunt's performance is absolutely stunning as the suspected source of Susan Sarandon's character's concerns and Sam Neill's character's attention. No spoilers!Watch and see. My ideal rating would be 6.5/10

Doug8910 As some time, a film that attempts Hitchcockian suspense will succeed. Beyond the shadow of any doubt, this is not that film. This film doesn't contain the shadow of any suspense.I must confess that the film actually did create some suspense for me...About 45 minutes in, there was a sense of tension about how much longer the film would need to be endured. This is suspense, and film making, of the worst kind.The script is banal. The gaps in the plot are insurmountable. In an apparent effort to create suspense that doesn't exist in the plot, the film is mind-numbingly, slowly-paced and imbued with overacting. As a result of the poor script and misguided performances, the film appears almost like a highly financed high school production. This film is a testament to the conclusion that, when given a horrible script, even great actors can appear inept.SPOILER ALERT!!! This film is based on the premise that Mara (Emily Blunt) is exacting vengeance on her birth mother (Sophie-Susan Sarandon), who gave her up at birth, by seducing her mother's husband, Craig (Sam Neill), and taking over her mother's family. This could be a warped, but intriguing, plot. However, it depends on our being convinced that there is a smoldering desire building between Mara and Craig, and that Mara is carefully tending that fire. That element is virtually absent in the film. Until Mara embraces Craig in his office after his architectural design is accepted by a client, there is little evidence that Mara is attempting to seduce Craig. Even during this embrace, and the subsequent "intimacy" between Mara and Craig, the passion is vacuous.The denouement is simply inane. While hospitalized after attempting to incinerate Sophie in the basement of her own home, and suffering burns herself, Mara is shown creating a scrapbook of her life. This scene shows Mara becoming tearful as she looks at a photograph or another girl who resided in the same orphanage as she had, even though we haven't heard about this young woman previously in the film. (Is this supposed to mean something to us?). Even more inexplicably, Mara is shown pasting, next to her own photo, a photograph of Sophie which lovingly bears the word "Mother." Are we really expected to believe this? IMDb indicates that Susan Sarandon collaborated on the script for six months, with the writer/director Ann Turner, before it reached her standard. Another few years might have helped.

ChargedFan I appreciate both sol1218's and PhantomAgony's reviews as they helped answer questions I had after watching this, in my opinion, decent movie. And actually, after reading these reviews and rethinking some aspects of the movie, I think it was a better movie than I initially thought! As PhantomAgony did:NO SPOILERS YET:I'd read a recommendation for this movie after seeing Emily Blunt in something else, so I was happy it showed up on a movie channel recently. Having found Emily Blunt's other performance interesting, and generally liking Susan Sarandon, I thought it would be a decent cast anyway. Yes there were some holes in the storyline, but I thought Ms. Sarandon did reasonably well as a character whose sanity is in question—although I found it hard to believe she'd be so flippant about breaking into Mara's home again after the restraining order.I again found Emily Blunt's performance interesting. She's got a rather unusual beauty—not classic, but appealing. Her eyes are part of it, and she seems to do well at playing less than happy characters, so I'll be keeping my eyes open for her. And her flirtation toward Sophie, despite Sophie's obvious unease, seemed much more realistic, natural, and full of chemistry than her subsequent seduction of Sophie's husband. But it quickly becomes clear she was just putting on a show for Sophie and trying to gain her trust. Some of the movie seems a bit slow, and there are questions left unanswered—such that after seeing it, I looked forward to reading others interpretations. But for fans of dramatic movies involving flawed characters, I think this will pass muster. But when recommending it to my mother, I remember telling her I didn't understand the reason for the title…NOW COME THE SPOILERS:As far as the ending twist, sol1218's review title is what sealed the deal for me: "You can share anything of MINE" spoken by a young Kate to a young Mara while both living at the children's home. While it may not be absolutely clear to some, that spoken line from the childhood flashback is what led me to the conclusion that Mara was trying to take Kate's family as her own (that as well as what I felt was a striking similarity in facial features between the pictures of young Kate and Ellie whose pictures you see Mara cutting out at the end). And I agree with her(?) take that it was a surprising realization—although I think it could have been more shocking had it been made more clear. As it was, when the movie was over I found myself asking "Wait…Really?" and trying to piece back through to see if my conclusion seemed accurate—even rewatching some of the scenes.For viewers who didn't realize this conclusion, who just thought Mara was in fact Sophie's baby, the movie could probably still be enjoyable. Although seeing it that way would raise many questions regarding Mara's earlier behavior—her flirtiness toward Sophie would have been downright creepy, as would her subsequent seduction of Sophie's husband, who could in that situation be her father, or at the very least stepfather. So those actions make much more sense—or at least seem less creepy—if you accept she was not Sophie's daughter. But in drawing that conclusion, I found myself questioning some other situations. Because, as PhantomAgony's review points out, it seems Mara's intent on making Sophie's life miserable rather than becoming her daughter. But I hadn't yet put together the reasoning for the title—and that is what PhantomAgony's review did for me, explain the title and the not so obvious shift that Mara's character undergoes. But somewhat different than PhantomAgony's conclusion, I don't think it ever was Mara's intent to impersonate Sophie's daughter—rather, she was intent on making Sophie's life miserable and/or perhaps even killing her after destroying her happy family life, in likely retaliation for having abandoned Kate…taking revenge on Kate's mother instead of her own—but when Sophie mistakenly assumes Mara to be her daughter, Mara finds that idea "irresistible" and decides to go along with it. A-ha, yes, that makes sense to me. So initially, Mara was seeking vengeance (and all her earlier actions make sense when viewed through that lens)—but when her plans don't go as expected, and she winds up the burn victim of the fire she'd set to kill Sophie, and there's Sophie claiming to be her "mother" and wanting to include Mara in her book, initiating a relationship with Mara that Mara's own mother never wanted, Mara apparently decides that sounds okay, and yes, even Irresistible! In other words, it's only in the conclusion that Mara assumes the identity of Sophie's daughter. Hmmm, yes I think that must be it—it's not actually a case of stolen identify at all, but rather a case of mistaken identity--but I think I'll watch it again to verify. That also seems to make the movie more heartwrenching. Because Mara is a very twisted and manipulative character starting off…but I believe it's revealed she's also a very lonely and unhappy woman (she's married, but did anybody else find her relationship with her husband suspect—they never displayed any real warmth for each other, and I would have liked to know more about their relationship/how it came to be). So when Sophie presents this opportunity to "be part of her family," I think Mara undergoes a major shift and maybe for the first time ever sees an opportunity to be part of a happy loving family. And in thinking about how this would play out, I would envision this having a happy ending, with Mara likely becoming a very loving daughter to the mother she never had and Sophie finally mending (at least in her mind) this haunted piece of her past. I'm glad I didn't rate this before review—I would have probably initially given it 6 stars, but now it gets 9!

Gordon-11 This film is about an accomplished cartoonist who is convinced that someone breaks into her house repeatedly. Her sanity is quickly being put into question.I expected "Irresistible" to be substandard as it was straight to video. After watching it, I was left to question why this gem was not released in the cinemas. Susan Sarandon puts on a great performance as a woman under great pressure, experiencing unusual events in her home. The plot is well written, and the story is very well told. Sometimes evidence points one way and sometimes the other way. It quickly makes you wonder whether strange things really happened. Soon, it makes you question whether Sophie is sane or not. It's intense, engaging and suspenseful. It makes you doubt what seems to be the truth, so that you just don't know what or who to believe. Such great story telling makes "Irresistible" a great psychological drama.