Reeseville

The summary was promising but watching the movie was a huge disappointment. Nothing happens in this movie. Plot is linear and without surprise. Normal characters stay normal until end of the film, weird characters stay weird until end of the film. There is even not a single tentative to foul the viewer into thinking that the bad guy is someone else than the most obvious candidate. On the positive side, actors play quite well, and there is a tiny bit of atmosphere in the movie, but much too little to be any significant.

People who vote 10 for this movie either didn't see it, or are member of the movie production team ! 4 is well paid.

The most interesting aspects of this film is the pacing and small town feel to it. The passage of time can be tedious but to me that is what the film maker was trying to pass along to the viewer. Similar to a frog in a pot of water. When the temperature is turned up slowly will characters and audience pay heed? There are some flaws to the film. It makes a real point to this being a small town as the locale but aside for a few major characters you don't really get a feel for that town and how the characters fit and are perceived in this town. Mark Hamill works brillantly in this piece in a role I never would have thought him for. Also well cast were Majandra Delfino. Many of the elements of this story were well telegraphed to the audience when I think the writer should have give the audience a little credit. A capable work but it left me wanting.

"Reeseville" is at times excrutiatingly slow, but on the whole a suspenseful microscopic mystery-suspense kind of story. Despite the slow beginning and pacing, by the end I was on the edge of my seat shivering at the creepy and climatic ending. Hence I found the film to be clever and very twisty. It rates highly in my "must see" book!

I mean, come on! This movie had such nice potential but it's like they ran out of money to finish the script and just telegraphed the whole damn rest of the movie about 2/3rds of the way through. Characters start spouting this movies whole reason for existence to other characters who didn't ask for the information on extremely flimsy premises. They also fall into some stereotypical behavior because that must be what's expected in this genre of movie. It's really pretty sad because this movie could have been so much more.

I was really hoping this would be a good movie. There was some good acting. Mark Hamill does an excellent job until the movie falls apart, so does Sally Struthers. It was fun to see them working and succeeding at their craft. Majandra Delfino was pretty good for awhile until her lines just became untenable. I felt sad for her that she had to say these lines that just shot the whole movies credibility for any thinking movie goers. Brad Hunt does an excellent job. He really has a surprising range of talent judging from another of his movies I recently saw, Lucky 13. (which was a piece of crap). This guy could be a star if he could pick the right scripts and get lucky with the right director.

Almost forgot! The music was so heavy handed you might think this project was handed to some minor film school to be scored. I call this kind of music "Teller Music" because you can just tell what's coming next based on the music. Less is more sometimes.

Cut half of the music from this movie, get a good film editor, a small rewrite or two and this would be a very good movie.

Being a fan of both Majandra Delfino and Mark Hamill I got this movie last year when it came out on DVD in Europe. When I watched it last year I felt that it wasn't a bad movie but I did think it could be better.

When I saw the official site had the DVD with deleted scenes for Region 1, I figured what the heck I would get the new version. I was right, this movie could have been better.

The theatrical version was cut to be a thriller but the deleted scene had more of a character study feel to them. They also tied together scenes that didn't really make sense in the theatrical version. Like how Iris got David's mother necklace that Jason grabs from around Iris's neck before the big showdown when David hasn't given it to her yet.

In the deleted scenes we see Athee actually gave Iris the necklace for David after Iris and him had a fight and that the scene where he tells her about the necklace actually took place after they had gone out on a date bowling and David walked her home.

Iris and David relationship also seem too rushed in the theatrical version. There are a couple of nice scenes with them that were cut which would have made their relationship more plausible and it's too bad because when I first watched it I didn't think Majandra and Brad had a much chemistry but when you see the deleted scenes when they were allow to relax a little you could see that they did have chemistry. Especially the scene that was cut where Iris goes to see David while stoned.

Mark Hamill was great in this movie and it was so nice to see him in this. He really has turned into a wonderful character actor. Also Missy Crider as Athee steals every scene she is in. Her and Majandra had such a great chemistry together.

The 'mystery' isn't that hard to figure out and is pretty paint by numbers. Also why Iris continues to live with her brother Jason after he beats her old boyfriend to death is never explained, which is one of the plot holes this movie suffers and the movie does suffer from a few plot holes but nothing that should keep you from checking the film out.

So if you are looking for a mystery with a big surprised ending, you probable won't be too impressed by Reeseville but if you want a nice little mystery to watch on a rainy day then give it a shot, especially if you can get your hands on the DVD with the deleted scenes. Also if you are a Mark Hamill fan this is a must see!!