j over
08-15-2005, 07:29 AM
The vast and empty green-filled fields and swamps of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana are right off the bat an obvious choice for a setting of a horror film. Even more so because of the area's supposed citizen-practiced "hoodoo", not to be easily confused with the similarly-worded and religious doings of voodoo (a little more on that later). Now, with this dire obvious backdrop with the way it's portrayed and the somewhat potential-holding notion of hoodoo, one might expect an at least decent and hopefully intriguingly suspenseful film could be conjured up within the right filmmaking hands. Unfortunately though, the inane danger of mistaking silliness for scariness and the inane danger of mistaking style for substance overtakes this wannabe chiller.
Kate Hudson plays a young woman named Caroline Ellis who, after becoming disenchanted with nursing after a tragedy on the job, decides to take up a job caring for a stroke victim named Ben Devereaux (played by John Hurt) in the rolling backwoods of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. She relocates to the Deveraux residence accordingly, which by no surprise turns out to be a southern gothic mansion. There along with Ben she meets his estranged wife Violet (played by Gena Rowlands) and the family's lawyer Luke (played by Peter Sarsgaard). The rules are quickly laid out for Caroline where she intends to take over the role of caring for Ben while Violet does seemingly more important tasks such as planting and inhaling many cigarettes. Soon, Caroline finds that the Deveraux residence has a dark past looming inside it, which by curiosity and some fine stupidity thrusts Caroline into discovering the magic workings of hoodoo. This, in time, leads Caroline to find out that Ben may be in vastly graver danger then suffering from a potential medical and physical relapse, and she must learn to harness the imposing supernatural forces coming against her in order to save Ben and herself. See, even by reading the above description one might think they may be in for an at least serviceably sufficient horror thriller, but seemingly not much care or maybe strong thoughts and logic were put into the movie's running time.
Now, are there any positive factors to be found in dark corners of this film? Since this isn't one hundred percent cinematic garbage, there are a few, however minute. Kate Hudson does a fine job playing bruised and curious Caroline, but later on I will discuss why that on the flipside is a negative as well. Both John Hurt and Gena Rowlands give fine performances as well as the magically-troubled couple, but John Hurt in particular is the one who stands out slightly more in one's mind. In the supporting roles of the movie, Peter Sarsgaard does alright work as the simple minded, somewhat charming and red herring-induced lawyer, and Joy Bryant gives a suitable but noticeably short performance as gal pal to Caroline Jill. Director Iain Softley does serviceable (if although muted) work here and the cinematography by Daniel Mindel is understandably vacant of too many bright colors and overall works fine.
The category for this movie that is much longer is for the negative aspects of the film. First off, although as I said above that most of the performances in the film are all fine, not one of them hit any real memorable or interesting notes to make any of them really worth seeing and to be talked about. Actually, towards the end of the film, Gena Rowlands (although not all her fault considering the weaknesses of the script) at times gets into clichéd territory and most of the time hits beats that come of as on the verge of comedic rather then suspenceful. Silliness is obviously never a good sign in this genre, and I now secondly come to writer Ehren Kruger's work here on the film. Ehren Kruger, who previously has proved to be a talented cinematic craftsman with such offerings as "Arlington Road" and 2002's memorable remake hit "The Ring", really loses his creative edge or notch with this movie. Much like in this year's earlier dismal sequel "The Ring Two", Mr. Kruger trails along the lines of invisible logic and sometimes absurdity that instead of really trying to get us to suspend our belief for major thematic effect, presents the proceedings with a rather blandness of flair that renders the majority of the film both dull and uneventful. The overall pacing of the film is quite whopper-jawed; it never seems to quite know which way to go and feeds the feeling of boredom that many elements of the film has. The subject of hoodoo, in which supposedly if you don't believe it can't hurt you, comes off in a more simply silly manner then anything truly jarring or even interesting. Another issue which may be credited to the many scripting flaws is that the film tags along with certain elements of fairly transparent predictability. Cars conveniently run of gas near run down gas stations. Lightning storms conveniently storm off during the night to obviously attempt to enhance dramatic and threatening effect. The haunted house in question overtly looms in sight, peels at the walls and has eerie décor in any startling corner. Floors creak with every step, at times seemingly even when no one is stepping. The protagonist's best friend conveniently has the needed information to guide her and us forward into the inevitable conclusion. In fact, Joy Bryant's character is in retrospect hardly even needed except to share the supernatural goods on what Caroline is facing in a singular scene.
Some characters in the film are somewhat underdeveloped as well, but in particular our wanted heroine Caroline. She not only does not show enough colors for us to really care for her safety or even sincerely like her but she tends to walk right into ultra-clichéd and idiotic potential traps. Rationality is something not only some of the characters are missing but what some of the film itself is missing as well. Caroline never thinks to call the authorities when things begin to increase in badness, for prime example. Another setback to note is that the score (done here by Edward Shearmur) doesn't mind at all in completely telegraphing incoming suspense to make what's happening on screen even less suspenceful and aids cheap jump-out scares in obvious fashion. A fairly one noted piece, indeed. Now, onto the final subject of the ending in which some proclaim to be quite the clever one at that. While I admit that I did not particularly see what ends the final moments of the film coming, it is not an idea that is neither satisfying nor original, for that matter. This movie leaves you then with a feeling of what you just spent your time invested in was neither investing nor satisfying enough to want to be invested in again. In a rather muddled and unfortunately dull package, "The Skeleton Key" is one key that opens no worthwhile doors.
Overall: Devoid of thrill or satisfying captivation, "The Skeleton Key" is one thrill-less and unsatisfying mystification.
Grade: D
Kate Hudson plays a young woman named Caroline Ellis who, after becoming disenchanted with nursing after a tragedy on the job, decides to take up a job caring for a stroke victim named Ben Devereaux (played by John Hurt) in the rolling backwoods of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. She relocates to the Deveraux residence accordingly, which by no surprise turns out to be a southern gothic mansion. There along with Ben she meets his estranged wife Violet (played by Gena Rowlands) and the family's lawyer Luke (played by Peter Sarsgaard). The rules are quickly laid out for Caroline where she intends to take over the role of caring for Ben while Violet does seemingly more important tasks such as planting and inhaling many cigarettes. Soon, Caroline finds that the Deveraux residence has a dark past looming inside it, which by curiosity and some fine stupidity thrusts Caroline into discovering the magic workings of hoodoo. This, in time, leads Caroline to find out that Ben may be in vastly graver danger then suffering from a potential medical and physical relapse, and she must learn to harness the imposing supernatural forces coming against her in order to save Ben and herself. See, even by reading the above description one might think they may be in for an at least serviceably sufficient horror thriller, but seemingly not much care or maybe strong thoughts and logic were put into the movie's running time.
Now, are there any positive factors to be found in dark corners of this film? Since this isn't one hundred percent cinematic garbage, there are a few, however minute. Kate Hudson does a fine job playing bruised and curious Caroline, but later on I will discuss why that on the flipside is a negative as well. Both John Hurt and Gena Rowlands give fine performances as well as the magically-troubled couple, but John Hurt in particular is the one who stands out slightly more in one's mind. In the supporting roles of the movie, Peter Sarsgaard does alright work as the simple minded, somewhat charming and red herring-induced lawyer, and Joy Bryant gives a suitable but noticeably short performance as gal pal to Caroline Jill. Director Iain Softley does serviceable (if although muted) work here and the cinematography by Daniel Mindel is understandably vacant of too many bright colors and overall works fine.
The category for this movie that is much longer is for the negative aspects of the film. First off, although as I said above that most of the performances in the film are all fine, not one of them hit any real memorable or interesting notes to make any of them really worth seeing and to be talked about. Actually, towards the end of the film, Gena Rowlands (although not all her fault considering the weaknesses of the script) at times gets into clichéd territory and most of the time hits beats that come of as on the verge of comedic rather then suspenceful. Silliness is obviously never a good sign in this genre, and I now secondly come to writer Ehren Kruger's work here on the film. Ehren Kruger, who previously has proved to be a talented cinematic craftsman with such offerings as "Arlington Road" and 2002's memorable remake hit "The Ring", really loses his creative edge or notch with this movie. Much like in this year's earlier dismal sequel "The Ring Two", Mr. Kruger trails along the lines of invisible logic and sometimes absurdity that instead of really trying to get us to suspend our belief for major thematic effect, presents the proceedings with a rather blandness of flair that renders the majority of the film both dull and uneventful. The overall pacing of the film is quite whopper-jawed; it never seems to quite know which way to go and feeds the feeling of boredom that many elements of the film has. The subject of hoodoo, in which supposedly if you don't believe it can't hurt you, comes off in a more simply silly manner then anything truly jarring or even interesting. Another issue which may be credited to the many scripting flaws is that the film tags along with certain elements of fairly transparent predictability. Cars conveniently run of gas near run down gas stations. Lightning storms conveniently storm off during the night to obviously attempt to enhance dramatic and threatening effect. The haunted house in question overtly looms in sight, peels at the walls and has eerie décor in any startling corner. Floors creak with every step, at times seemingly even when no one is stepping. The protagonist's best friend conveniently has the needed information to guide her and us forward into the inevitable conclusion. In fact, Joy Bryant's character is in retrospect hardly even needed except to share the supernatural goods on what Caroline is facing in a singular scene.
Some characters in the film are somewhat underdeveloped as well, but in particular our wanted heroine Caroline. She not only does not show enough colors for us to really care for her safety or even sincerely like her but she tends to walk right into ultra-clichéd and idiotic potential traps. Rationality is something not only some of the characters are missing but what some of the film itself is missing as well. Caroline never thinks to call the authorities when things begin to increase in badness, for prime example. Another setback to note is that the score (done here by Edward Shearmur) doesn't mind at all in completely telegraphing incoming suspense to make what's happening on screen even less suspenceful and aids cheap jump-out scares in obvious fashion. A fairly one noted piece, indeed. Now, onto the final subject of the ending in which some proclaim to be quite the clever one at that. While I admit that I did not particularly see what ends the final moments of the film coming, it is not an idea that is neither satisfying nor original, for that matter. This movie leaves you then with a feeling of what you just spent your time invested in was neither investing nor satisfying enough to want to be invested in again. In a rather muddled and unfortunately dull package, "The Skeleton Key" is one key that opens no worthwhile doors.
Overall: Devoid of thrill or satisfying captivation, "The Skeleton Key" is one thrill-less and unsatisfying mystification.
Grade: D