Time for another review by our good friend Ronnie Malik of Boxofficebuzzbyronnie.com
Director: Heitor Dhalia
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Daniel Sunjata, Jennifer Carpenter, Sebastian Stan, Wes Bentley, Emily Wickersham
Rating: C-
Many of us will remember the classic film The Silence of the Lambs – a movie that brilliantly built tension between Clarice, a young inexperienced FBI agent, and her nemesis Hannibal Lecter, a genius criminal mind that is able to look into the motives of serial killers. It’s a film best known for its clever ways of uncovering clues in the disappearance of a young girl and the feverish pursuit to find her abductor, a suspected serial killer, before he adds another murder to his list. It also does a perfect job of scaring the pants of viewers as they feel the same fear Clarice faces when she confronts the monstrous kidnapper. The latest film to follow this theme is Gone, directed by Heitor Dhalia and starring Amanda Seyfried.
Jill (Seyfried) is suffering the trauma of being kidnapped and thrown in – you guessed it – a water well located in the middle of a state park. She manages to escape but unfortunately the authorities can find no evidence of the kidnapping and Jill is told that the whole thing is all in her head. She never lets go of her harrowing experience and learns self defense, how to use a gun, and becomes extremely aware of her surroundings in an effort to protect herself from an abductor she is convinced will come back to finish what he started.
Jill comes home from work one day to find her sister Molly (Emily Wickersham) is gone without a trace. Frantic with worry, she goes to the police to tell them that Molly has been taken by the same man that took her a year ago. With the exception of Officer Peter Hood, (Wes Bentley), no one believes Jill, and her claims that her sister was snatched from their home are ignored. So she sets out to be a one woman army determined to find her sister and save her from the clutches of mad man.
What initially makes Gone engaging is the premise of a victim of crime with no detective training outsmarting authorities and a homicidal maniac. Jill is able to track down and string clues together to that set her on the path to locate Molly. She catalogues details like what Molly was wearing, what the neighbors saw, and who Molly was in contact with before she disappeared. After putting facts together, Jill uses her cunning to slyly ask the right questions of potential witnesses putting her directly on the track of the whacked-out sicko that has her sister.
Then the movie takes a left turn down the wrong street. What should have been a heart pumping pursuit to prevent a crime turns out to be a sluggish boring ride. Seyfried doesn’t do anything to bring Jill’s desperation to life, so you never feel panic or hold your breath hoping she succeeds before time runs out. Most of the film is spent watching Jill running from street to street trying to stay one step ahead of the officers that won’t come to her aid. Then the plot gets really silly and unbelievable. Jill manages to track down a locksmith; invade a college dorm room; borrow a car from some guy she does not know; break into a hotel room of the suspect and question all her neighbors. The drive around town alone would take up the whole day, but somehow the movie wants us to believe that the super sleuth did it all in a few hours.
The supporting characters are weak and do nothing but argue with Jill about her theories regarding Molly vanishing into thin air. Is it really possible that experienced police officers can’t notice fine details of a crime, but a young and untrained victim can put facts together to solve a mystery? Then there is a setup by police that is done not once but twice, to trick Jill into believing that she is safe. And of course, Jill is too smart to fall for that ploy. Really – couldn’t the writers come up with something better than that to show that the law can out smart a little girl playing detective?
(possible spoilers in this paragraph) To top it off there is no mystery or plot twist to keep audiences interested in what could have been a well done action thriller had the script just been better developed. We don’t know the motive of the criminal mastermind and only get to see him for a few minutes at the end of the film. Gone sends us on a wild goose chase and right at the finish line there is nothing connecting finale of the movie to the rest of the film so there is no climax. The very lame and abrupt ending leaves you believing that the filmmakers got tired and just threw something together so they could call it a wrap and get home in time for dinner.
Gone does not even come close to measuring up to Silence of the Lambs. This movie will not be remembered as an intelligent and crafty film about a young woman desperately trying to save someone from death at the hands of crazed serial killer. It will be remembered for – well – probably nothing. Not even Seyfried’s wide-eyed look can rescue this film from permanently disappearing into the abyss of bad movies.
