Détour mortel

It's not great but it's not bad. I rarely feel this ambiguous about a movie to be honest. It seems to be a revenge thriller with an odd light- hearted "Murder She Wrote" sensibility, which honestly makes no sense but results in something quite bemusing & unexpected. I really don't know what I think about this flick but I sort of enjoyed it. Some of the reviewers here giving it negative reviews are so incorrect in their comments I actually wonder if they even watched the movie. Certainly it's doubtful if they DID watch it that they actually paid it much attention. For example, there was no "dead relative" talking to her, that was clearly one of her novel's characters and the other women were part of the "knitting circle" from her books. The point was that she was having trouble separating reality from fantasy, but many have missed that point. There is a lot more to this story than some seem to think so if you are the kind of person who needs everything spelled out to you carefully and/or have the attention span of a flea then you won't like this flick. Others might like it tho. Worth giving a shot but don't expect too much. It just could have been done a whole lot better.

Watched the movie despite the reviews because of Steven King's writing it. Couldn't believe I'd seen the same move - it was a good exercise in psychology. To briefly over the story, a successful author is raped. She avoids telling anyone because she fears retribution, both professional and personal. She soon start hunting her assailant. Some of her behavior isn't helpful or rational. Many times you catch the 'heroine' hallucinating, so was she making it all up? Is she the real killer? The tension was well-done. The plot twists were credible and added to the suspense. So what were the detractors watching?? OK, it wasn't a big-budget movie, but it was certainly entertaining.

If you're at all familiar with the work of Stephen King then you wouldn't even need to be told this was an adaption of one of one of his short stories to know it. It has his signatures written all over it from the talking GPS, the elderly character from one of our heroines book who is an extension of herself, the dark humour - it's all there. I'm told this sticks very faithfully to the book and I've always felt adaptations of King's work are at their best when they do this.

It's very similar to Jodie Foster's 2007 film 'The Brave One'. A woman taking revenge for a heinous crime committed against her. These days the revenge genre, when the lead character is a man, has become a little stale so filmmakers are having to think up creative ways to keep it interesting with unique killing styles and traveling half way across the globe to find their prey. It seems the female lead character is still fresh enough though that the revenge can be enacted in a pretty straight up and down way.

For a TV movie the quality is certainly all there. The acting is very decent and the story never drags nor feels rushed. Maria Bello impressed me in the lead role. She was gritty and believable and never makes you turn against her which is very important in this type of film. It never really does anything original enough to be considered great which is the only thing holding it back. But overall a good watch.

Good dialog, good story line, good acting. Characters are developed in an interesting way. My husband and I, who generally prefer action flicks, got this because of Maria Bello, and high marks on this site. Maria, as always, does a great job here. Though this is not really an action film, it kept us entertained and we both enjoyed it. A few somewhat "superficial" moments early in the film, but it gets serious soon. And, as in any other film, there are moments when you say "Just do this or that!" and at least one thing is left unexplained, but it does not spoil the film. Great ending, with a vague reference to an earlier Maria Bello film I'm sure you'll recognize.

The lead actress in this movie gives a staggeringly superb performance.

She is a famous fiction writer who becomes the victim of a horrendous crime and decides to seek revenge.

The problem with this film is that it is presented in the screwball style(the story comes from Stephen King) which turns it into what the English call a 'black comedy' with imaginary characters and objects speaking out loud and the dead talking after their demise. Despite these challenges, the lead player still manages to make this a compelling view:

7/10.