A group of friends fly to an island so they can commemorate the tragic death by suicide of a close friend a year before. Many truths come out during their time there.
I didn't want to just jump on the bandwagon of poor reviews so I watched it right through so I could give a fair review.
The story itself could have been ok but was overly webbed and drawn out. The dialogue/script was childish, but that matched the whole thing, childish. I felt like I was watching a very early episode of Mean Girls, or 90210.
The acting was beyond poor. There was the very odd moment when you could tell an actor was reacting to an emotion rather than direction, but only a handful in the whole film. It distinctly lacked acting ability throughout the film, but the behaviour of the cast suggested that they though they were acting really well. Delusion reigned.
The direction was almost bizarre. We'd see people look a certain way and there was no context for the look. The camera panned to look at a wall, or someone sitting down, and then back to the scene but without ever letting us know why it had panned away. People's actions, especially in group scenes just weren't normal and I think sometimes the actors struggled to know or remember what they were supposed to do. There were many horrified looks, or agonised looks that I think were meant to be sympathetic, that did not correlate at all with the plot or the scene.
The cinematography was below amateur grade. Half the time it was as if there was a hazy filter over the lens and there were many angles and shots that simply didn't make sense. Also the score was louder than the dialogue and continuous, even if the music lent nothing to the scene. It felt like it was there just for the heck of it. It was highly irritating right to the very end. The constant closeups of faces that were struggling to portray what they wanted to was painful.
The overall thrust of the film was a lot of titillation and see through clothes, a sex fest where everyone was having everyone else, and some of the most cringe worthy lesbian kissing scenes I've honestly ever seen. Liz Hurley wins the gold award for most awful kissing in the movies. And the cringeworthy moment when she pulls her panties back up after being caught kissing Natasha. It was like a pair of 16 year olds being caught in the playground. I actually gagged.
Makeup, although I expected a lot worse, overall was actually reasonable, apart from Hurley's. She honestly reminded me of some 80's porn star with her makeup, it did nothing whatsoever to put her in a good light.
The very final scene was utterly bizarre. After Mia has boarded the jet Rebecca has a final truth to admit to. I can't even talk about it really: it's not a great plot twist, it's just bizarre and unnecessary. I hate to say this but after seeing Damian's other, short film, The Boy on the Beach, I truly worry about the relationship between him and his mother.
I gave it a 2 but I think 1 was simply out of pity.
