Fragmented

Heart-pounding. Unpredictable. These are just two words I would use to describe Douglass Elford-Argent's drama, "Fragmented.

The story follows one woman's quest to uncover her husband's past after he goes missing in Mexico.

Directorially speaking, the piece is incredibly effective and admirable. Argent takes what could have been a run-of-the-mill thriller and turns it into an experience that is filled with grit and humanity. All of his characters undergo trials that urge audiences to reflect on what they themselves would do in such circumstances.

What stood out to me was his use of yellow light and shadows to convey a sense of dread and panic. It reminds of of Steven Soderbergh's trademark, one that has served him well.

Having gone into the film with little to no expectations or backstory, I was very pleased overall and would recommend it to anyone who's in the mood for something edgy and different.

Thanks for taking a risk, Mr. Argent!

In my opinion i felt the movie had some great ideas and i imagine the budget probably cut into the fine tuning that would have made those ideas really come alive for me as a fan of mystery and thriller genres i felt i was worth the watch. not to give anything away about the plot but i found the character arch for each character was strong some actors in the production may have lowered the quality of the overall film but that is given with a budget like this one. no one is particularly bad, stand outs being the lead investigator who felt had a nice charisma and the male lead Sebastian's partner Angel who sold the believability of the culture they were playing and the female lead was engaging the dialogue felt smooth as opposed to other productions where their dialogue comes off rough the writing is solid i believe this film would have been better served maybe streamlining some it's ideas into a tighter film. That being said i would honestly give this film a

6.5 Worth your time if you are into Thriller or Mysteries.

This solid indie thriller's gritty all-hand-held cinematography will transport you to Mexico City and the surrounding desert and jungle, where the colorful cast delivers a satisfyingly realistic mix of Spanish and English, led by guileless Gwendolyn Garver as Natalie. This seemingly innocent ingenue will surprise you with her anti-heroic antics, stopping at absolutely nothing on her quest to unravel the mystery of her missing husband and the mysterious key he left behind. Natalie's not afraid to get her hands dirty -- or bloody. If you like HOMELAND, you'll like how this movie depicts mental illness, the stigma attached to it, and the strong female lead's fear and frustration at not being able to trust her own thoughts and memories. The title, FRAGMENTED, seems to refer to the characters' disparate versions of events. Just like the characters, I found myself wondering "What is real?" Don't look away for a second -- you won't want to miss any clues in this totally unpredictable story.

... not that this visceral crime-/psychological-/mystery-thriller is in any way derivative of those two classic entries within the same mixture-o'-genres -- far from it: this taut indie feature is a true original. Rather, "Fragmented" achieves results as impressive as did the first two films ... and delivers, in the process, a comparable mind-f*** that makes the viewer reconsider, in a glaring new light, everything s/he has just experienced. The bonus of this enforced paradigm shift is that you may decide (as I did) that you *have* to watch this fine film all over again -- and soon! Top-notch acting (especially by Gwendolyn Garver and Horacio Lazo) combines with a clever script, lean-'n'-mean camera work, and deft direction to yield a big-bang-for-the-buck tour de force.

I was recommended by a friend to watch this movie since it is streamable with amazon prime. I went in with an open mind and ended up really enjoying the movie. It was very entertaining and had a clever plot line. The were ups and downs along the way and some pretty good twists.

After doing some research and finding out that this film has won some awards at festivals I am not surprised. I felt that the directing was executed well and the acting was very good at times.

I saw the previous review that asked if this was a student film... ummm, what student films are you watching??? The quality is way beyond any student film i've ever seen. This may not have the million dollar budget that you're used to seeing in the theaters, but this a a really good Indy film.