What Comes Around

No pun intended - and yes I know the saying (goes around) - and I understand what the title is suggesting. You will too, when you see the movie. I was trying to figure out which direction this would take. It didn't exactly go the route I thought it would go - still a warning sign - or maybe multiple warning signs.

Grace van Dien, daughter of Casper, got quite famous - not so much because of her father, but because of Stranger Things - which I have not seen yet. But it is on my list. This is not exploitative by the way if that is something you are looking for - it is quite obvious from a certain point forward ... when the twist comes to play. And the cliches keep ... coming up too (no pun intended) .... it tries hard to give us food for thought ... and the actors try their best ... but it never really gets there (in my book) ... still good effort.

An attemp at a shocking thriller unfortunately turns into a lengthy, dull and plain film with plenty of cliches and repetitive tropes. The story itself had a nice simple (although not original) plot twist that sadly got lost in completely ordinary unsophisticated script. I am not saying that to make a good film you need to present an extremely complicated story, but when you do have a simple tale you have to grab the viewer's attention with other elements like a solid script or engaging cinematography and production design - all of which this picture lacks. Yet the biggest downfall (out of many) of What Comes Around is its incredibly weak acting performances. The rising Grace Van Dien (Stranger Things) just could not capture the protagonists's personality believably and her portrayal felt deeply artificial and in some scenes even ridiculous.

At first I thought this was a solid,muscular acted drama about a young teenage girl finding friendship then ' love' with a much older guy on the internet and the ramifications of how the internet can foster vulnerable girls into falling with much older men.

Cue a talky , arguments about the mother finding out and the girl expressing her love for this chap- who is old enough to know better... However, it doesn't really go down that way, a twist occurs mid way through that spins the entire film around completely.

This is a short,lean drama, clearly based on a play that gives weighty themes to adult responsibilities, childhood in peril and the sins of the past. Good performances around especially Kyle Gallner- my second film this week I've seen him in after 'The Passenger'; he's turning into an actor to watch.

A thought provoking and well made drama.

I happened to come across "What Comes Around" on Hulu. Having no idea what it was, I decided to check it out. It had a routine plot (a girl hooks up with a boy who isn't exactly what he seems), but a twist saved it from being a total washout. Even so, it seemed like not much happened in the movie. Not terrible - there were some intense scenes - but an hour later I felt like I hadn't gotten anything out of the movie.

It's probably worth mentioning the nepotism behind the movie: director Amy Redford is Robert's daughter, while star Grace Van Dien is Robert Mitchum's great-granddaughter. Summer Phoenix is the younger sister of River and Joaquin.

There is much to like with this movie. Grace Van Dien and the ever excellent Kyle Gallner are the two best reasons to watch this movie. Both are utterly convincing in their roles.

The direction and the editing, on the the other hand are, well, sub standard, is the polite way to say it. Some shots are dwelt on for too long and some of the scenes feel that they are 'acted' rather than having two people having a real conversation. The other actors are quite awful.

There is a nice little plot twist that comes in about half an hour into the movie that stops it falling into a schmaltzy Hallmark type movie.

Is it worth a watch? Kind of, but with some reservations.