The Image of You

Sasha Pieterse and Parker Young are incredible in this thriller from director, Jeff Fisher. Expect twists, turns, and thrills from "The Image of You."

The cinematography and lighting are highly evocative of Hitchcock's mid-century work. The clever use of shadow in adding a certain layer of mystique to the character of Zoe is masterfully played.

The film's use of montage through splitscreens and wipes is also something that has not been utilized in Hollywood in quite some time (the "Ocean's" remakes are the most recent examples that come to mind). Fisher clearly wears his influences on his sleeve, and it is an absolute pleasure seeing this adaptation of Adele Parks' novel come to life.

The only reason I gave it a two is because I did actually make it through to the end, although why I bothered I'm not sure!

It was also quite stylish, in its own way. Some of the outfits were stunning.

That said, the plot was completely obvious from the start and I kept waiting to see when everyone else would twig.

There was no plot twist as it hit you like a brick to the head within the first few minutes.

None of the characters were particularly likeable, especially the nice twin. Irritating doesn't come close, but I think that was meant to be the point.

I guess I could give it another point for the Titanic hand on the steamy car window, but I'm not feeling generous enough tonight!

Jumped into this mainly because of Sasha being listed as lead in something with an R rating, along with a great support cast; Mira and Nestor (the non-eyeliner guy). Never heard of the book, but I do get a kick out of the seedy twins genre in general, so I kind of knew the plot without knowing it. It did kind of seem like a hammy parody of itself at first, but the more I watched, the more I couldn't really look away from Sasha (especially as Zoe), so I stayed with it. Yes, the plot is familiar, and the major plot twist is easy to spot in the first 15-20 min, but I have to say, Sasha is back on her game here from what I would call a void since playing edgy Ali in PLL. She looked fantastic and had charismatic confidence in her screen presence. All the main characters were beautiful people here (something I miss these days), and those elements combined with the absence of tiring identity, social political, and environmental messaging ended up making this an unexpectedly pleasant watch for me.

I was looking for a new movie to watch and didn't have much time, which is when I stumbled across The Image of You. Seeing that it is a mere ninety minutes, with a few recognizable TV show actors, I decided to put it on completely blind. At first, the movie seemed very campy. The dialogue was awkward, and the story felt forced. Nothing of substance occurred until the end of the film, where so much happened that it felt super chaotic. To pile on, Zoe is one of the most unlikable characters I have ever seen in film, and Nick is irredeemably heartless and dumb. At times, it was hard to watch. However, I pretty quickly stopped taking it so seriously and began to actually enjoy it a little bit. I was able to have fun watching the big twist, and laughing at the scenes that were outlandish. Overall, this was a pretty bad movie by all means, but it could be somewhat of a fun watch if you indulge in the campiness.

So I was winding down father's day with my 2 - 18 year old twin boys and my 15 year old daughter. Just as we were all about to say goodnight and I was ready to return to my home, my daughter said "dad, let's watch a movie together an we can make it an annual tradition. While I was exhausted and ready to head back home, I certainly wasn't going to pass on this very sweet invitation from my daughter and the start of a father's day tradition, so we settled into the family room of her mom's home and we searched for a movie that neither one of us had scene.

We stumbled onto The Image of You and wow what a way to start our tradition!!!!

Captivating, invigorating and even mesmerizing from the word go. We found ourselves sitting on the edge of our seats, passing on the snacks because we didn't want to miss a word and desperately trying to figure out where it was all going to land, something we both failed to do.

In addition to both disturbing but fascinating storyline, and well told, the movie's director kept a very high energy and excitement throughout the entire movie, using music, interesting split and quad screen shots that made the picture feel ALIVE!!!

So from a 62 year old man that was exhausted and an equally tired 15 year old girl - thank you thank you thank you - This movie made the start of our tradition a most memorable one!!!!