First Born

This one was a great movie about nothing, and I mean really nothing. From the beginning till' the end, everything happens has nothing to do with reality(or fiction) and common sense, not even touching common sense. However, I might add that from the "directoral" point of view it is a great achievement to create that much suspense without practically having a story. In the end, I do not regret watching it(we all need to see all kinds of movies to create a real and correct hierarchy in our minds) but I would not recommend it to any of my friends... I hope I didn't offend anyone who reads this, and I apologize for my English. Thank you.

When the dancer Laura (Elizabeth Shue) feels sick after a presentation, she finds that she is pregnant. Her husband and successful executive Steven (Steven Mackintosh) decides to buy a huge house in the suburb to raise their baby daughter Jessica in an adequate environment. Laura changes her lifestyle, feels nervous alone with the rats in the house and accidentally kills their dog with poison. Later Steven hires Mrs. Kasperian (Kathleen Chalfant) to help Laura in the housework and with the baby, but Laura believes the old woman wishes to harm Jessica using witchcraft. Laura has a breakdown, and when she recovers, her mother moves to her house to help her with the baby. During the night, Laura decides to get rid off a doll she found in the house changing their lives forever.

"First Born" is a weird and disturbing movie, and talking to some friends of mine I noted that this is the type of film extremely unpleasant for women. The beautiful Elizabeth Shue is thinner and has a good performance, but her character is not well developed, therefore it is not possible to know whether she is a mother with postpartum psychosis or simply a mad woman. I liked this film, but I do not dare to recommend it especially for potential mothers. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Filha das Sombras" ("Daughter of the Darkness")

I usually love anything with Elizabeth Shue. This one just didn't seem right. The movies leaves to many questions unanswered. What was interesting, however, on a personal level, was that this reminded me of my ex-wife's behavior after our child (2nd born), so I give high grades for realism.

At one point in the film, I thought this was going to Rosemary's baby reincarnate, and sadly it wasn't. The story line was sub-par and I wouldn't recommend anyone seeing movie as I feel I just wasted 2 hours of my life.

So why 4 and not 1? There are far worse films out there and at least this one was decently produced.

Elisabeth Shue plays a dancer whose career is suddenly put hold when she becomes pregnant and upon delivery of the baby via cesarean section, things take a turn to a somewhat dark and often disorienting turn.

Shue's performance in First Born is fabulous and the ending was a twist that was somewhat expected, but still a bit of a shock. The camera is following Laura throughout the movie. we see only her perspective of how things play out which by the end, leaves you with many unanswered questions.

Overall, a very good film.

Reading the other comments, I certainly see why people say this movie is lame. It does drag on with seemingly no point and just when you think something big will happen... it doesn't. But you are able to tell that this movie was made like this on purpose. All though may not have been the best idea it has a real life feel to it. Its shown through the perspective of "Shue" the whole movie, a lot of unanswered questions and confusion left at the end is because she never had them answered.... and honestly all of the questions are answered if you pay close enough attention there is just no "WHY" but you can figure the "HOW" out. Her hallucinations and the way her mind goes downhill is believable and the way things weren't always what they seemed, which disappoints the movie fan in you, really portrays something that could happen in the real world. This movie is good because it gives you that eerie feeling of real life where as if it was laced with a bunch of special effects and corny situations made strictly for fear and not the story line, it would have been much worse in my opinion.