La Maison des Esprits

Ghosts with unfinished business stick around haunting the living. Bad acting, bad everything. Mr. Hardesty just makes me laugh in a non-comedic movie. Oh the drama! The whole relationship between the girl and her rebel teenage neighbor Cole is no surprise. Very predictable movie.

So, for a 21 year old flick, that certainly must have been made for tv at the time because Greg E wasn't a big crossover movie guy and Elizabeth Moss was quite young and not known, it's not bad. Definitely has a layer of the late 90's style to it, not even into the 2000s yet despite its release date. But, there's something to be said for that...still sort of vanilla and with a story. Let's face it, the whole feel to movies shifted in the next decade as well as watcher attention span and need for doses of adrenaline all the time instead of on occasion. Not every thriller has to freak me out. I enjoyed it, and the story does unfold. I watched it over morning coffee, didn't turn it off...it had a twist. As long as I don't turn it off, it's usually okay. Moss does a good job for not being experienced at the time. Just keep thinking...2001 versus 2022...some innocence still existed in our world.

It feels if the Hallmark channel made "horror films" this is what it'd be. It was weird in the sense it did have a ghost story element, but it was the opposite of scary. Everything is sweet, and works out well, and everyone learns important lessons along the way. It had no tension.

Even the production value looked as though it was made for TV. The story was basic, and slow passed, which it did get a bit more interesting as it went on. So better writing to tighten up the script would have helped this film.

This is not a horror movie, not a thriller or suspense movie either. It's a ghost story for kids with some added teen drama. It is quite slow and does get a bit boring and the acting does seem a bit strange, but it's a tv-movie from 90's era and they often were like this - well not this bad but you know...

I give this movie 6 stars based on the fact that it is a made-for-tv movie and it accomplishes what it set out to do. We like ghost stories because it is comforting to believe we don't simply walk the earth for a few short years just to disappear and be forgotten. We want to believe we are more than we appear to be, that love endures, and that the things we do in our lives matter. We also want to believe our loved ones who die are not lost to us forever. This movie checks all those boxes.

If the dialog isn't brilliant and the writing isn't tight, well that's down to it being written for tv, isn't it? However, regardless of all the shade being thrown at Elizabeth Moss for not brushing her hair, she's still adorable. Not as adorable as she was as Peggy Olson, but still pretty darn cute.