Beach House

You don't have to get very far down the user reviews to find out this movie did not go over very well! But I wasn't disappointed with this effort.

There aren't many movies that hold my attention all the way through to the end. The "Beach House" actually did that for me. I found the overall filmmaking very good--excellent cinematography, well handled in the editing room, well scored. Very easy on the eyes. The cast is singularly attractive, with the exception of the antagonist--Paul, played by. Murray Bartlett. I felt that I understood what the writer and director were trying portray with Paul, but he never really pulled it off. Hence the tension between him and Emma never felt plausible or dangerous. Had the character been played by someone with a lot more "edge" and testosterone, the movie would have worked much better on the whole.

Willa Fitzgerald makes this worth watching all by herself. As difficult as it was to believe in Murray Bartlett, she almost overcame that by herself. Beautiful without being overwhelmingly so, she was very believable as a college student who wasn't really sure what she wanted and had a serious itch to push her boundaries to try and figure it out. A brief scene in which she tells Paul that she HAS stepped over the line in the past (with a T/A), was perfectly paced and convincing.