User reviews

"Seems like you were in need so I figured I'd reach out to you." Tommy Carter (Mackie) is an author and spiritual adviser who wrote a book about his near death experience and tries to help others deal with what they have gone through. When his brother gets into trouble Tommy thinks the best way to help is is to do one more one-on-one session. He offers to help Angel (Whitaker), a husband and father who lost his mother but still sees her. When Tommy tells him he can't help him anymore Angel doesn't like that answer. This is a movie that I had no idea what to expect out of it. I thought it was gonna be a little creepy but when it started becoming a little like Misery I got into it. The acting is great from these two and the movie stays pretty tense the entire time but it was also a little draggy in some parts and I found it hard to totally stay focused on. This is a movie that is worth seeing if you can but don't expect anything super amazing. Overall, a movie with shades of Misery that dragged just enough to make it hard to stay completely involved in. I give it a B-.

Solid although not usually exceptional acting from the cast carries this movie well enough, while the performance by Forest Whitaker is quite strong (but I tend to expect that from him). He carries off the role he is given well, and elicits a fair bit of understanding from the viewer even though the role he plays is a hard one to make people sympathize with. The story is solid, and the ending is decent even though it is less realistic and more moralistic in motive. I don't rate it highly, but I do give it a true medium rating and would recommend it to anyone who just wants a movie to watch that will not leave them cold.

This is one of those films that is largely based on the interpretation of the actors, who do the best they can with the material given to them and the instructions given by the director, Philippe Caland. The story told did not seem to have an exceptional relevance: it becomes quite predictable from the middle onwards and have some serious problems to consider.

So it's not surprising if I say that the best stuff here is the solid dramatic performance by Forrest Whitaker, an actor who has been on the rise since the beginning of the millennium and who has had a very promising career. This film is not one of his best, but his powerful and intense performance gives the film more interest. He is absolutely believable as a person in pain, disturbed, mentally unstable, but who has a heart and is not evil, although he is threatening in a convincing and brutal way. Anthony Mackie cannot keep up with him, but he also does a positive work. His character is denser than it seems at first glance, but this will only be understood as we see him interact with Whitaker. Despite a worthy attempt by Sanaa Lathan, we don't have a good supporting cast, and Mike Eps is particularly disappointing with his uninspired portrayal.

The script is based on the relationship between a visibly disturbed man and a therapist and author of self-help books, who accepts him as a patient despite not usually doing so. After all, he needs the money to help a bully brother. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to understand that this isn't the kind of help his new patient needs: the man is showing signs of psychosis or schizophrenia and needs a psychiatrist, not a guru of happy thoughts and Tibetan meditation. This therapist, if he has any experience, should have understood this: instead, he continues and makes the situation worse by suggesting that he stop the medication, perhaps an antidepressant, that was prescribed. The rest are consequences.

Honestly, I feel that this was enough to make a good film, even with the painful scenes that follow and that constitute the "core" of the film. The story of the car accident didn't need to be there. A disturbed man does not need a logical reason to attack, he just needs to lose his reason and self-control. Giving an intelligible reason for Whitaker's character's actions, in addition to being redundant, is weakening the character and turning him into a villain that he is not. This really ruined the film for me.

The film has many violent and bloody scenes, including tortures and high tension situations. It's not a film to watch with your eighty-year-old grandmother or the children. However, the suspense works effectively, and the tension grows as the end approaches. The good design of the sets (in particular the dilapidated house) and the cinematography help a lot to create this hostile and sinister environment.

Forrest Whitaker is one of the most talented actors I have seen within the last few decades. I would put him on the same level with Sidney Portier, Denzel Washington, and Daniel Day-Lewis. His character in the Last King of Scotland was astonishing and the Oscar he received for the role was truly earned.

I guess it doesn't take long for Hollywood to forget how talented an actor is, and Whitaker wasn't offered anymore challenging roles. I guess, for financial reasons, he took whatever roles were offered.

To say this movie was completely awful and was poorly written is an understatement. The characters were unbelievable and the storyline did not make any sense. First of all, how could a street thug become transformed into a licensed therapist and earn TWO graduate degrees within a time frame of 4 years? How come the little girl did not hear any screaming after she left the locked room she was in? Why did the child's mother allow the father to have so much unsupervised time with the child? It was obvious he was unbalanced and unstable.

I just can't believe how low Whitaker stooped to make this garbage. Not worthy of an actor of his caliber.

This movie was so awful I actually made an IMDb account at 3 in the morning just so I could vote this movie farther into the gutter. If I can just prevent one helpless soul from spending precious moments of their life seeing this movie out it's worth writing this review.

Please God do not try to watch it all the way through, you will feel only rage.

Seriously, I am legitimately angry at the producers of this movie for allowing it to be released. I've been robbed, beaten, and berated, but this movie is the worst crime ever committed against me.

I don't think I've ever hated anything this much in my life.

Review: I had high expectations from this film because it had some decent actors in it, but the storyline is sketchy and the pace of the film made it quite boring. If you use your head, the film is predictable from beginning to end although it's supposed to be a suspense thriller. It also seemed a bit over acted and the director chose to jump right at the deep end which didn't give the characters that much depth. The concept, which is about a man who has psychological issues after the death of his mum and he decides to get help from a psychologist, doesn't seem to go anywhere for the first half of the movie and then it gets extremely dark out of the blue. The ending was also very sketchy so you end up feeling a bit cheated after spending so much time waiting for the story to unfold. Personally, I thought that the movie seemed a bit cheap and not very well thought through. Disappointed!

Round-Up: Forest Whitaker is not an actor that has chose the easiest path in his career. I would have thought that he has earned the right to pick and choose what roles to take, so it might just be down to bad choices why he has starred in so many dodgy movies lately. From big movies like the Butler and The Last King Of Scotland to the dodgy Pawn, Crossfire and the Truth, he has really had a rollacoaster of a career. Maybe he's just addicted to work like Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro. Anthony Mackies career has picked up lately with roles in the new Captain America, Pain and Gain and the new Avengers movie, so I doubt that this film will harm his portfolio. In all, this film must have looked good on paper but it just wasn't put together well by the director. 

Budget: $5million Worldwide Gross: $1million

I recommend this movie to people who are into their suspense/drama/thrillers about a man whose suffering with psychological problems after the death of his mother and seeks for help from a successful book writer. 3/10

And by this I'm not only talking about the budget (which seems to be a big concern for another reviewer), but also about the story of the movie. Sometimes there is more to a story than the first glimpse reveals. It may feel like the movie tries to cheat its way into the viewers mind a little bit, but the actors make up for it.

This is still a tough watch, because the title is chosen for a reason. There is not always reason to things happening in the movie and it seems a bit like a muddle from time to time, but it's still able to hold up a certain degree of suspense, if you let it to. The actors try their best to divert from some holes in the script (or finished movie, if scenes got deleted for pacing reasons) and the movie will be explicit in depicting violence to a degree.

First, let me say that I was born and raised Cajun in South Louisiana. I usually check out the movies that are made in, or are made about, the area that my family and I call home. The acting in this movie was good enough. The writing and plot, however, were terrible. What a horrible message it sends the audience in its conclusion. The other thing is, I can't imagine how they spent $5,000,000! There were no effects or any even relatively expensive looking sequences. I think the only person to speak his honest mind here was kyale100 in his review. Or, maybe he was the only reviewer (besides me) not on the producer's payroll! No disrespect to Ms Milfort, who did a fantastic job in the movie, as well as her angelic addition to La Mer!

This movie has gotten a lot of bad reviews and i have no idea why. The twist were at the right place and everyone says the acting was bad. Forrest Whitaker always KILLS everything he does and Anthony Mackie was PERFECT. People say Mike Epps is just a comedian but he was really good in this role. This movie actually had me confused and shocked at some point but i don't regret watching this at all. I really wish i would've went to the movie theatre to see this. I recommend this movie to anybody who loves movies that make you think and that don't just hand their ending out to you on a silver platter. My advice watch this on a rainy day, turn the lights off and pay attention. Hope this helps.

This movie had lots of potential but fell short. Still worth watching but I was disappointed. Forest Whitaker was amazing as expected but the rest of the cast was mediocre. Honestly I felt it wasn't so much bad acting...more bad casting. Tommy Carter played an intellectual therapist/life coach which made for some border line soap opera acting scenes. Mike Epps acting was fine but again wrong guy for that role; he's a comedian not a tough guy ex-con. Many reviewers mentioned this is a tricky, twisting, confusing movie...I have no clue what they watched. Between the trailer and the first scene I had the basic plot figured out which left to real no jaw dropping surprises. The ending was meant to be thought provoking but it felt more like a bad ending to a book. So much untapped potential, so many relations left unexplored.

Now I went in knowing that it had a 4.7/10 average (at the moment) which does indeed sound low, but with general urban movies with a predominantly black cast a low rating is not out of the ordinary.

I mean despite it's flaws, I did enjoy for instance THE CONFIDANT (2010) which has some similarities to this, and was also a Codeblack Entertainment movie, so I was thinking that this could still be good.

I'm fans of most of the cast... Forest Whitaker especially who is one of my big time favourites.

But, neither of them can save this poorly written psychological thriller (without much logic).

Riddled with plot holes and not a single likable character in sight that seemingly get less likable by the minute it quickly becomes a dull watch.

I'm all for African American movies in diverse settings and genres but this is a really poor attempt of a movie and it makes NO GOOD DEED (2014) look like a masterpiece in comparison.

Yeah a very disappointing effort indeed.

Sadly this film may not be embraced by the masses, as bad as they need to see those types of films, but one can hope. One ought to be sharp and capable of following intelligent plot to really enjoy this film. It's not the 6th sense, where everything is pretty much spelled out for you yet still maintains it's integrity by being genius. This is more for the figure it out, use your brain kind of audience.

The cast bring it in terms of acting, my congratulations to the people who thought this would be great for an all black cast. The direction, the casting, was brilliant. Mind, consciousness, terror, a strong sense of reality, moving at real life pace, all the ingredients for a great psychological thriller are there. Very atypical for an all black cast, remember, I said atypical, please look it up and don't get confused. I personally think they should have maintained the original title VIPAKA. I played the Seer so I won't comment on my brilliant work :), I read the guidelines and it doesn't say I can't review a film I'm in, since many actors don't like films they're in, this one, is definitely worth a shot especially if you like the actors in it, (I personally can never take my eyes off of Forest Whitaker) and that genre, you will be happy you saw it.

"Repentance" starts off as a reasonably sincere tale of a best-selling author/life coach (Anthony Mackie) who tries to help a grieving man (Forest Whitaker) come to turns with the death of his mother. But at the 35-minute mark, the movie suddenly jumps the tracks, turning into a bizarre, yet strangely conventional, hostage drama, with the psychologically disturbed client kidnapping and torturing the psychologist in an effort to prove which of the two is actually most in need of help.

The movie seems to be making the case that people like the Mackie character are just glib, overpaid shysters, taking advantage of people's suffering by offering them little but shibboleths and bromides to help them cope with their problems - but any message the movie might be trying to convey is subsumed by the unpleasant melodramatics that come to dominate the second half. Yeomen that they are, Mackie and Whitaker work valiantly to overcome the various roadblocks that the script throws in their path, but even these two fine performers eventually have to concede that they're fighting a losing battle here. Even the "surprise" ending and moralistic message can't ultimately redeem this cinematic turkey.

This is quite possibly in my top 3 worst movies ever watched. Quite a stupid movie from start to finish!

This is mostly awful with one redeeming aspect Whitaker. He is great but he can't save the movie.

The main flaw of the movie is the Mackie character (his performance is ok I guess), however as a therapist OMG. Some of the crap that comes out of his mouth, if only the writers had done some research on his profession it would have been a better movie.

Also suffers from being crazy predictable.

Skip it and have a nap instead you'll feel better.

Years ago, Anthony Mackie was driving drunk and got into a terrible accident. He has since reinvented himself as a self-help author, talking karma, spirituality and moving forward. He is approached by Forest Whitaker, who seeks help in getting over the untimely death of his mother, which has blighted his marriage and left him in a state of clinical depression. Mackie agrees. Now, guess how Whitaker's mother died.

It turns into a variation of Stephen King's MISERY, with Mackie's wife, Sanaa Lathan searching for her husband, and Whitaker having too keep his young daughter, Ariana Neal, from finding out about the bloody, manacled prisoner in the basement. Mostly, though, it's about watching two great actors going at it hammer and tongs: Whitaker, playing another of his mostly-functioning madmen, and Mackie playing a character so that, probably, he doesn't know if he believes what he says. Is his smooth line all jive, or has he found redemption in helping others?

Oh, Dear. Who doesn't love Forrest Whitaker AND Anthony Mackie? I was so looking forward to what I expected to be a film noir battle between good and evil or at least a storyline that was somewhat interesting and believable. Whitaker did his best with what he was given to work with. Mackie was a disappointment. The writing is horrendous. Way too many plot holes. Obvious from the first few frames what the outcome will be. Ridiculous turns, "I wanted her to take dance but Angel insisted on yoga." Really? And who leaves their young child with an obviously disturbed parent that needs coaxing to "take your pills." Just a huge let down and a disappointment in both these actors who I have really enjoyed in the past. Last King of Scotland? Now THAT's a Forrest Whitaker worthy film. Detroit? One hell of a film and Mackie at his best in a role worthy of his talents. This thing bombed.