SnoopyStyle Robert Forrester (Paddy Considine) is struggling to divorce his vengeful wife Nickie (Caroline Dhavernas), and he starts peeping in on the simple isolated life of Jenny Thierolf (Julia Stiles). Then she catches him one night, but she invites him in. The stalker becomes the stalkee as Jenny breaks up with her fiancé Greg. Greg decides to fight Robert one night. Robert wins and leaves a drunken unconscious Greg by the side of a river. Soon after, Greg is reported missing and Robert is a suspect.It's a good idea of dysfunctional people finding each other. Director Jamie Thraves just doesn't have the skills to elevate the tension and the drama. There is a lack of moody atmosphere that this movie desperately needs. I love all the actors involved especially Paddy. Dhavernas may be miscast as the bitch. That role needs a darker tougher chick. The potential is there, but the execution is lacking.

lathe-of-heaven I just finished watching this movie for the SECOND time...I knew I had seen it a while ago, but I couldn't quite remember what was going to happen. MAN, what a Suspenser! The mood, the style, the Suspense... The director frigg'n NAILED it. The look, the writing, the performances were all top notch.I remember when I saw this the first time that I didn't really care for the lead guy too much; he was really just SO annoying because he didn't seem to be able to communicate with others at all. VERY frustrating... But, as the film progresses you begin to see other sides to him and he is not at all as self-absorbed and one dimensional as one may have thought.Talk about PSYCHOLOGICAL... I think this is just about as psychological as a Thriller can get, unless of course you venture into Horror territory where you have masterful films like 'SESSION 9', for example. The characters are well portrayed. When Julia Styles and Paddy first meet it is amazing; I would think that it would be very DIFFICULT to do a scene like that and be CONVINCING, enough to draw the audience into the story as much as it did. And then, when you first meet Paddy's almost ex-wife... Talk about a mind-bender. You are seeing some absolutely first rate writing, directing, and acting here, let me tell you...Normally, speaking very broadly, I do not usually care for films like this; where happenstance, fate, or whatEVER draws these innocent people into this web of disaster, no matter what they do. BUT... in this case, the film is done SO damn well that you truly have NO choice but to ride along, gripping your @ss the whole time, hoping and praying for the best. That is, unless you happen to be one of these vacuous reviewers here who are so jaded, bored, and clueless, that they wouldn't know a good film if it went down on them (so to speak...)Seriously....Bottom line... this is an exceptionally well done film with Suspense and Tension dripping out of every orifice (the film's, not yours...) It will take you and smack you around until you bloody well beg for mercy...

MarieGabrielle Paddy Considine as Robert Forrester is very good here. He is a man going through an at-fault divorce, Caroline Dhavernas is irritating as ex- wife Nikki. He relocates and changes jobs from New York City to get away from her and start over. He thinks.The story of a hapless man, he tries to do his best but married to an albatross like Nicki who pokes fun at him at a divorce mediation, he eventually leaves NYC to find a fork in the road...he chooses a Northeast Pennsylvania town, where he works for Lavigne aeronautics and seems to settle.He sort of stalks Julia Stiles "Jenny Thierault", by watching her for a month at her rural house, she seems happy in life and this gives him a semblance of hope for his own new life. Stiles is very good here as instead of rejecting Robert as unstable, as he is watching her from her backyard, she says "depression can crush you" and invites him for coffee. He takes this as empathy, and is surprised she is interested in him at this point.As things develop we feel for Robert who is going through divorce and suddenly realizes his minor interest in Jenny, is (to Jenny at least ) a true romance. She appears to be a borderline personality, she understands depression, but also becomes attached too quickly to any man who appears. She dumps her brutish boyfriend (Greg Wyncoop) and begins to pursue Robert more vehemently. At first he hides, then submits to her for the physical benefit. Her girlfriend sees Jenny as needing protection, and warns Robert not to hurt her.Robert knows, deep down it is wrong, but when he tries to confront Jenny after they spend a night together she starts making blueberry pancakes and telling Robert if she were to be on death row this is her favorite last meal, and she'd want to hear vintage Louis Armstrong.The photography and foreshadowing is noteworthy here.The cry of the owl resounds one night they are in bed together and Jenny is jolted awake. It's nuanced, which may be why (unfortunately ), it was not as widely distributed. The minor suspense points here are similar to Hitchcock, and very rare in film made in Hollywood today, sadly.This is an excellent suspense film. Even Julia Styles, who I rememberer from only a few previous performances, is perfect here as Jenny, attractive but lost, a winsome sad smile, and need for ...love or something more. Considine also, despite how he befalls the horrible fate, being wrongfully accused of murder etc., is sympathetic in that he is overcoming a breakdown (from his ex-wife goading him).There is a twist I will not reveal which will make you want to read all of Patricia Highsmith's short stories. "The Cry of The Owl" is haunting and real. 10/10.

franz66 This film immediately pulled me in with the first scene of driving-through-the-dark-night, unrecognizable glows of light flying by, signs of life in an otherwise black space and arriving at a warm glow in a quaint house and a woman washing dishes. Robert watches her from the safety of dark woods, night after night, although he has a top design job at an aeronautical firm.The people throughout this film are all askew and odd, relating to each other around corners and the strange connection that occurs between Jenny, the woman in the window, and her voyeur Robert is a desperate attempt at something real made by two eccentric individuals marked by depression and solitude. Like all Patricia Highsmith material, life exists on the edge and comfort is not so easily had.I enjoyed the contrast made between the big city, with Robert's malicious ex-wife living amidst its penthouses, and the small town Autumn leaved rurality that Robert has retreated to. Robert makes efforts to keep himself in his bubble but Jenny, upon discovering him, tempts fate and propels herself upon him, breaking up with her boyfriend to do so and thus setting into motion a weblike story of violence, deception, and the inevitable play of loss after loss.I watched this after seeing Julia Stiles on this season's Dexter and I couldn't help but think the producers must have seen her in this, her characters in both being both haunted with pain, yet filled with resolve. Paddy Considine does a great job playing a man who seems to have been run through the washer and dryer a few too many times, both distant and filled with an undercurrent of emotion.I highly recommend this film unless you demand nothing but car chases and narratives that spell everything out for you in the first ten minutes.