Solitary

This was really a surprise, a film I had not really heard about, but just took a bit of a chance with it, not knowing what to expect.

I was more than amazed . . . certainly one the most original concepts for a story I've seen yet in a film, and incredibly well delivered via Amber Jaeger's character.

This is probably her best work, at least that I know of, and a bit of a risky role to experiment with, but she pulls it off about as perfectly as could possibly be done in the context of the story.

I'm not even going to give a hint at what eventually evolves out of this story as it unfolds . . . you'll just have to sit down and absorb this yourself. This is not an "action" thriller by any stretch of the imagination, but it is absolutely thought provoking.

I'm not even sure if there is anything I would try to compare this to, but no worries. I doubt you'll be disappointed . . . definitely 10 stars, and then some.

Solitary looks like another damsel-in-distress Lifetime TV movie, but it has some decent tricks up its sleeve. The mystery is enough to keep you interested. The apparent resolution is cliched, but it turns out to be a red herring, and the actual reveal at the end is...well, not very original, but I bought it anyway. Maybe I was just in a charitable mood. Amber Jaeger's performance is really what knits things together. I'd like to see her in some other films with better scripts. Entertaining, and worth a watch if you're not feeling too critical.

Solitary (2011)

The lead actress here, Amber Jaeger, might be the only real acting talent in this fairly small cast. But she's really good, as she was in he husband's recent movie, "Take Me Home." In a way this is a suburban middle class version of the Ashley Judd look at insanity, "Bug." And like "Bug," this recent movie is low budget and deeply flawed.

And there is also a huge twist near the end that is very clever, and you can see a much better movie in it all by rearranging the clues to the twist so the audience can build some expectation. I can't say more without ruining that part of it, but I can point out the obvious that any viewer will discover in short time--the movie is slow, redundant, and confusing. It's highly improbable (or so it seems). If it had been even more improbable, so that you didn't just think it was bad writing in a bad movie, you'd start to wonder why it was improbable, what kind of weird "Memento" like trick is at work.

No such luck. Instead we have to see Jaeger's fighting her mind, and her fear of open spaces, and ignore the weird facts. Once you realize what is really happening (in the last ten minutes) you'll wonder why the whole movie couldn't have been an extraordinary mind trip, a fanciful game of invention and imagination. But that would make sense (like it does, in a weirdly parallel way, in the Robin Williams romance, "What Dreams May Come").

This is an indie production made in 2009, but in one of the common and frustrating aspects of that world, it sometimes takes really long to find a distributor, and so it's out in 2011. The director, Greg Derochie, is a special effects guy from Hollywood (everyone wants to be a director, you see), and in a huge irony, the special effects here are clunky. (I'm going to guess he didn't transfer to a low budget world very well.)

Anyway, I love movies, and I rarely say this, but unless you're an Amber Jaeger fan (there must be several of us in the country--we'll see more of her), I'd skip it.

I spent 2 hours trying to make sense out of a story that made no sense. It misleads the viewer over and over again and makes the characters look as stupid as it makes the viewer feel. It is poor science fiction but is not labeled science fiction up front. The director helped write the story so I understand why he was involved in the making of it. What Ican't understand is how he found some apparently talented people to work on it. I was left with the feeling that I had wasted my time and that there must be more to the story. I want to say something good about the movie. I guess the actors did a good job with what they had to work with and it was free (with my satellite TV package.) If you are not a science fiction fan, skip this one.

This movie held my interest from start to finish. It was part Hitchcock, with a light touch of David Lynch with an ending I did not see coming. But one thing that really helped create the vibe of the film was the very good music score, which I don't think no one here has mentioned in reviewing this. I'm surprised I had not seen or heard of this movie in the 10 years since it's release...I feel it's better than a lot of films of a similar genre. Catch it on Anazon Prime if you can.