Look Away

This was a very disturbing movie on so many levels. It's worth a watch but the ending really misses the mark.

I caught this on Showtime with time to kill and my expectations were low, but wow, nice surprise. Love the atmospheric feel, and wow India did a great job! For some reason, i thought it may be some kind of Lifetime movie type deal, i was soooo wrong. It kept my attention the whole movie, and with India that's not hard to do. It's worth a watch.

Maria (India Eisley) is a timid high school senior. Her father Dan (Jason Isaacs) is a plastic surgeon who is obsessed with perfect looks. Her mother Amy (Mira Sorvino) is struggling with depression. At school, her only friend figure skater Lily is possessive of her boyfriend Sean. She gets bullied by schoolmate Mark and his friends. She starts having visions of her reflections acting differently and talking back to her. The reflection calls herself Airam.

It has the tone of a good slow moody horror without the scares. It is a bit too slow and Mark really needs to die to set it off. Mark's bullying is problematic when the only person coming to her rescue is Sean. The skating party comes off really weird when everybody is laughing at her. There is one creepy aspect to this movie. While India is 25 and the character is 18, India looks really young and the sexual erotic aspect gets voyeuristic. It would be less creepy if she's playing a college student. She's a quiet actress and seems limited in range. She is able to play two separate personalities and that works better than expected.

Great cast, great premise but the director needs to reestablish the value of details. The atmosphere was effectively set, the cast did a fantastic job (especially India Eisley) but the director just seemed to neglect the details which impact the overall story. I understand that the beauty of films is it is not restricted to reality but effectively creating a reality you want your audience to be drawn into, is all in the details. Such a wasted project. I saw another review entitled All atmosphere, no substance, perfectly sums it up.

Either way, I really enjoyed it. Very atmospheric. Some people might not like the amount of questions the ending leaves unanswered, but I felt like it really benefited from not telling you anything for certain, just leaving you horrified and wondering.