Elsewhere (2009) Reviews

• For a few thousand $$$, they could have bought a decent script.

  innocuous2009-06-11

  It seems like I spend half my time watching poorly-produced and horribly-acted movies with good stories and ideas, and the other half watching well-produced movies with zero imagination and stock story lines. "Elsewhere" falls into the latter category. The actresses (and actors) are cute and do a decent job. (Keep your eye on the "weird' girl.) The production values are quite good, with interesting, but not impressive, cinematography. The whole movie is definitely not low-budget in appearance or finish. But the story and script are just awful...retreads of thrillers done hundreds of times before. Trust me, you'll pick out the bad guy within the first few minutes of the movie. No hints are required. There is very little tension in the movie, except for the few action sequences. Contrary to what you might expect from the tag lines, there isn't any "string" of mysterious disappearances. One girl disappears and, five years later, so does another one. The cell phone texting angle has been done many times before and much better, so no tension there. The typical (and stereotyped) red herrings abound. Finally, towards the end of the movie, you get a scene which ought to be subtitled "Scriptwriters Got Tired Here" or "Director Couldn't Figure Out How to Film This the Right Way." Two teens try to sneak up on a farmhouse where a (potential) bad guy is sleeping by creeping through a cornfield. Since they want to be stealthy, they (of course) bring along fluorescent tube lanterns. No, nobody would notice THOSE being carried through a completely dark cornfield at night, would they? And who would ever notice the bright light coming form the completely unlit barn when the kids finally get there? Unfortunately, this is typical of the writing in this film. Well-made, but still pretty worthless and unexciting.

• Wholly unremarkable. Good title, worthless plot. For kiddies who are a tat too old for R.L. Stines "Goosebumps"? Like ... 6 months too old? 5? Maybe 3 months?

  huh_oh_i_c2009-06-20

  I would warn you against spoilers but then, this film spoilers itself in first five minutes or so. Okay, so this is what is called a Fully Predictable Film. We see the two HUGE archetypal stereotypes in film-land, The Goody Good Girl (Anna Kendrick) and The Bad Girl (Tania Raymonde, who is really sliding), which they cared so little about they haven't even bothered to change their character names, much: The GirlScout and Da B--- (Female Dog). Just in case we didn't get it. (With that, this film is just one notch, a real tiny, tiny, tiny, notch up from R.L. Stines "Goosebumps", but that show was GOOD in it's genre). Soooo, Bad Girl is a Slutty-ish Type of a girl which does Slutty Things like plaster herself all over the net in skimpy underwear (okay, okay, it's NOT skimpier than Yer Regular Ol' Beach Wear, but hey, you get the picture). She has some Facebook-type of an internet-page where she has some 800 'friends' ... per day. All male of course. She has this super duper stereotypical Momma, who is Poor White Trash Personified, who lives in a trailer park (where else?) and who makes her money by selling Stuff Nobody Needs over the phone. Goody Good Girl is also raised by a single mom, but this one has a Good Job and is Conveniently Outta Town For The Weekend, so the pleasantries can ensue. Whateverrrr. Anyways, then there's the Big School Dance (of course!) and Goody Good Girl wants to hook up with Jock Type of an A-whole, but of course him being the Jock Type A-whole, he has to accuse her of being a prick tease when she doesn't immediately 'handle' his schlong, and she is rescued by Nerdy Geek Boy (who's also handy with computers, works in the frakking library(!) AND he's on his way to Stanford!! Doesn't come any geek-nerdier than that. So Nerdy Geek Boy rescues Goody Good Girl from Gropy Jock Type A-whole, they go outside and they see Slutty Bad Girl fighting with Dumb Ex-Boyfriend who is of course ... Da Mean Aggressive Type! Then of course we know that Something Very Awful will happen to Slutty Bad Girl. Sure enough, Goody Good Girl receives the obligatory grainy video on her cellphone indicating Slutty Bad Girl is in Serious Trouble. Obviously, Goody Good Girl calls Da Cops and we'd expect the police to Do Something, but since Slutty Bad Girl is Poor White Trash and has pee-ed off the Teen Molesting Rapey Amateur Local Cop, nothing is done about it, and nobody believes Goody Good Girl. Then WEEKS go by, while Nerdy Geek Boy & Goody Good Girl do their Nancy-Drew-Hardy-Boys-Teen-Detective thing. All of a sudden, in a desperate attempt to rescue The Story Line there enters Strange Religious Man, whose daughter, Freaky Outcast Girl turns out to be the co-worker of Goody Good Girl & Bad Girl. He's also IMMEDIATELY The Main Suspect, and the viewer is never left in doubt about that. There's no intrigue, no multiple suspects, nothing. This is the Big Bad Killer, and there's very little suspense after that. The film tries to imitate When a Stranger Calls and Scream .... BADLY!!! You keep waiting for a plot twist but then the credits roll and you know It's All Over. The only remarkable thing is that they take a whopping 1h46m to tell this! The Melancholic Alcoholic. 2/10.

• It's not Anna Kendrick's fault

  MBunge2011-02-08

  Elsewhere is a middling little concoction that's one or two ingredients away from being really good. It's like a Nancy Drew Mystery without a mystery but with a serial killer. Writer/director Nathan Hope came up with a lot of nice ancillary pieces and then assembled them around an empty core. The result is a promising beginning, an anticipatory middle and a disappointing ending. Jillian and Sarah (Tania Raymonde and Anna Kendrick) are teenaged best friends. Jillian is a rocker chick whose edginess hides a desperate desire to get far away from a life she hates. Sarah is a good girl and that's pretty much it. The character has the disposition of a coat rack and while Anna Kendrick makes a very cute coat rack, Sarah being such a non-entity becomes the biggest problem in the entire movie. After a stretch of time where Jillian and Sarah lounge around doing terribly typical teenage stuff, Jillian disappears. Sarah investigates and with no help from her absentee mother, she turns to computer geek Jasper (Chuck Carter) for assistance. The only clue is a video sent from Jillian's cell phone that shows the inside of a school bus and then Jillian screams. Sarah eventually discovers that Jillian is only one of several missing girls, but who is responsible? Is it Officer Berg (Jeff Daniel Phillips), the creepy local cop? Billy (Paul Wesley), the high school dickhead? Is it the unstable Patty (Shannon Holt), mother of a girl who vanished 5 years ago? Well, there's honestly not much of a puzzle to figure out here. There really is no series of clues in this story that eventually lead to the identity of the killer. There are only a couple of pathetic, obviously constructed red herrings inserted into the script long after a reasonably astute viewer has deduced everything for him or herself. I mean, the average episode of Speed Buggy or Jabberjaw had a more elaborate mystery to solve than this film. That narrative weakness isn't that aggravating because writer/director Hope emphasizes the characters and their interrelationships over plot developments. The roles are all fairly clichéd - "girl acting out", "jock jackass", "super strict father" - but they're well constructed clichés and the cast perfectly provides the formulaic performances for which they were asked. Except for Jeff Daniel Phillips, who appears to be doing a bad Jack Nicholson impersonation all the time he's on screen. And the connections/confrontations between the characters achieve a certain believability. For example, you can feel the layered friendship between Jillian and Sarah and the long standing animosity between Billy and Jasper. Unfortunately, the blankest and least developed character in Elsewhere is also the main character in the story. Sarah has the most lines and is in almost every scene, but has the least amount of personality in the whole cast. That's not Kendrick's fault. She doesn't do a bad acting job. There's simply nothing distinctive, individualistic or interesting about Sarah. Having such a void as the leading role undermines every dramatic aspect of the movie. It's not a fatal flaw but, geez, this thing would have been soooooo much better if Sarah has disappeared and Jillian had been the one to look for her. Elsewhere does look good, moves at a satisfactory clip and has several effective though quite illogical scares. Combined with more than adequate acting in all but one case, that's usually enough for a film like this. But the emptiness of its plot and main character prevents Elsewhere from being fully entertaining. It's certainly better than most of the crap out there, yet there's no need to go out of your way to see it.

• not worth the effort

  dbborroughs2009-06-20

  Small Indiana town has a problem, it teen girls are going missing, though no one really is paying attention. When Sarah's best friend goes missing after meeting one of her on-line dates she's dropped into the towns underbelly. Nominal horror movie is really little more than a psycho on the loose tale with some mystery and fancy trappings thrown in. Not really original, much of the teen cast looks to be 5 to 10 years too old for their roles, Sarah's girlfriend seemingly about 15 to 20 years too old.Unremarkable in most aspects this seems to be a throw back to a quieter gentler time where movies were inoffensive. I'm not a fan and I doubt any one else will be too since the film, while well done in numerous technical aspects (the film looks good), too many other bits, including the plot, don't hang together. I would leave the film in its titled place and not take it home with you.

• Not great,but entertaining and way better than I expected

  Argemaluco2009-08-28

  I started watching Elsewhere with a bit of mistrust,because I have already tolerated too many juvenile thrillers lacking of any suspense or ingenuity,reliant that the hypocrite independent "touch" will be enough for distracting us from the same predictable clichés we also see on commercial cinema.Fortunately,Elsewhere did not fall on that,and it resulted to be much better than I expected.It has some important fails,but it kept me entertained thanks to its competent screenplay,solid performances and precise direction. The story from this movie sounds as a modern and juvenile version of Blue Velvet.Needless to say Elsewhere does not reach that heights (it does not even aspire to) but it kept me interested because the story is well structured.However,it has various forced elements,at the same time there are a few occasions on which it believes it is more intelligent than what it really is.Another fail is that this film has a few scenes which could have easily been deleted because they do not add too much to the story.Nathan Hope's direction is solid because it is sober and the movie has a good rhythm and tone.The performances are competent.Anna Kendrick is more famous for her appearance on the popular film Twilight,where she did not have too much opportunity to stand out with her character.However,she brings a natural performance and a good presence on Elsewhere.Tania Raymond does not appear too much,but her performance is solid and her brief chemistry with Kendrick is very good. In summary,Elsewhere is far from being a great movie and it is not very memorable,but it kept me interested and entertained.So,I think this film deserves a recommendation.