Ripple Effect

Not sure what the money was spent on if the budget was actually $12 million. I suspect that this reported budget is actually just stated as such as a play on the reported finance needed in the film for the protagonist's project?

Whilst the story line that an event could have a further impact on your life is interesting unfortunately the film does not really explore this in any meaningful manner with the characters involved, which is a pity as the character development was good, albeit a bit slow. As a result it become a very underwhelming tale.

I have given 4 stars as the music score was good, the acting was reasonable and assuming the budget was lower than reported on IMDb, it is not badly made, just the story line lets it down.

The only reason I picked this up was Forrest Whitaker. I've seen several of his straight-to-DVD items and they're usually interesting to very good.

I don't know if I want to know the background of this, 'cause I probably would get angrier. I would have to assume the director, writer and star (one guy) is Mr. Whittaker's and Ms. Driver's celestial guru, or some nonsense like that.

It doesn't help that the "hero" starts out as an arrogant douche who insists on calling his wife and child "beybee" 60 times in the first 1/2 hour. All that was missing was the gold chain around his neck.

So this guy runs his business into the ground, despite the fact that everyone around him loves him. They really love him. Adore him. It helps that he's also the writer telling his actors to love him. I don't.

Then, at his breaking point, he has to right a wrong he did years ago. That's holding him back, although it's unrelated to the present events.

(I should say it was entertaining to hear Ms. Driver fall into various accents throughout the film.)

Then another 40 minutes of blahblahblah and we're done.

Many other reviewers were basically calling this "intellectual" Sure. They just forgot the word "claptrap".

At least the star/director/writer is consistent. A consistently bad actor, writer, and director.

I don't think it was a bad film at all.

I don't usually like to comment on films, I think it's all kind of silly. I like to see the film and make up my own mind.

I just read "imizrahi2002" comment and I don't know why some people are so angry over a film. There seems to be a lot of upset people on IMDb. I guess "imizrahi2002" was in reaction to "jotix100" over glowing review. Dunno....

It's true the film is no Gone With the Wind or anything, but the film does have it charms.

I thought it was a nice simple emotional film with a good heart.

A bit shocked by the very negative review at the beginning. This is a very thoughtful, insightful movie. It feels very Buddhist in the sense that you cannot freeze any event in life and say whether or not it is a good or bad thing. Life exists in flow and bad turns to good and the reverse is also true. Those who are most free in life are those that let the past be what it was and choose to use it as a series of opportunities to learn how to live more deeply. There is a powerful intersection of two lives at the beginning of the film that shatters two lives in that moment. But both people use the event differently and when the opportunity is created to reconnect their lives, how each of them deal with it comes to light. "There is nothing evil but that thinking makes it so" all life is interpretation of events that are just events.

GOOD MOVIE....and unlike the guy before, i didn't fast forward through it, I WATCHED IT. if you decide to see ripple effect while receiving phone calls, cooking dinner or fast forwarding through it, there are so many more titles I would recommend for such an evening. Ripple effect is a movie about characters, that cannot be defined in "genre" terms. It is not an action/drama/comedy/horror/etc...kind of movie that fills the pipes and feeds the tiger, and as a result, may not find broad appeal. At first I was engaged by the writing and the acting, but I gradually realized that I was watching a special movie that tried to (and managed to) be different from everything else....and for that alone, hats off to all who made it happen. I have great admiration for the main cast forest whitaker/virginia madsen/ minnie driver, for taking a leap of faith with this film....stars of that level usually don't venture into such "out of the box" movies, but ripple effect worked for me, and I am sure that others who WATCH it, will feel the same.