Dark Places

I was gripped watching this movie. The story, the way it unfolded was, well, it had me hooked. I cared what happened... I was curious what happened, but when I saw what happened, it was like, "....... oh."

That conclusion (for me) did not match the rest of the movie. To me, if they wanted to go 'that way' for the ending, then to me, the backstory and backstory confusion, and Ben's story, and basically all the other Ben stuff needed wayyyyy more time. (I know it's based in a book, I wonder of all that backstory stuff gets more attention in the book... I'm about to find out.)

I gave it a 6 instead of a 2 because I really did like everything except the final reveal. Had it not been for a likable cast, that ending would've really sunk the movie for me.

I'd recommend it with the footnote: You won't be satisfied.

I did not read Dark Places nor Gone Girl (the other Flynn's book) but I can really said that movie is slow but captivating. Theron is as always excellent and modest. Her character does not shine like the female character in Gone Girl; in fact her character is really an accessory to the story that basically happens in flash backs.

As a murder mystery; the end is somewhat unexpected but not completely convincing; but it is obvious that the important thing was the sadness, misery and tough decisions some of the characters had to make and its consequences.

It is an interesting slow cooked movie; far from commercial but worth seeing anyway

This film tells the story of a woman whose mother and her two sisters were murdered on their farm at night. Her brother is convicted of murdering the three family members. She gets contacted by a club that is intrigued by mysterious murders, and she is forced to confront her multilayered traumatic past.

"Dark Places" is a truly haunting drama that keeps me captivated thoroughly. Viewers are lead to believe from the beginning that there is something Libby is not completely honest about. As more of the past is revealed in flashbacks, and even more of the past is unravelled through various interviews, the shocking truth is finally revealed. The ending is very poignant. I really feel for Libby and Ben, who have squandered almost thirty years away. They could have lived and loved, but they let naïveté get in the way big time. I do hope more people will watch this film. I think it's very well done, and it leaves me wondering all the would haves and could haves in the plot.

I thought the film had a lot of really cool twist and turns that kept me guessing all the way to the end.

There were a lot of layers too it that did not jumble up on you to become too complicated. I guess the story was flushed out quite well by the filmmaker.

The film had a lot of cool elements too.

Charlize Theron plays Libby Day, the lone survivor of a massacre done by her brother of their entire family. Twenty years later, a convention of geeks that love serial killers, lead by Nicolas Hoult, contact her and pay her to help them prove that her brother did not do it. Even though she said he did Twenty years ago.

The movie lives up to the title. It points out how low a person can get on many different levels.

Good watch.

Dark Places was interesting but not as riveting as I had hoped. I never had a chance to read the book - because the movie came out very early in France - so I watched the film with fresh eyes not knowing what I was in for. Problem solver that I am, I watched the film looking for clues but I fairly quickly had all the right suspects lined up before I even got through a quarter of the movie. I don't know if it's a testament to my "mad" deductive skills or a lack of mystery in the story telling. The exact same thing happened to me with Gone Girl - the book - which is why I didn't finish reading it. I guess I was hopping for more of a challenge with Dark Places, something that would have surprised me at the end.

Anyway, I still enjoyed the film, particularly how Libby's past memories were shot. They had an 1980s feel to them, I mean in the quality of the images, they had an old VHS tape look to them. They were grainy and shaky, which also gave them an horror movie vibe, while at the same time illustrating how Libby feels about them.

The film is like the title suggest dark, and I'm not just talking about the murders but the whole context the characters are in. It's socially realistic, you really feel for the struggling mother (Christina Hendricks) and her kids, the poverty and the hardship of their situation is almost palpable and that's thanks to Hendricks' performance. The rest of the cast is good but Christina Hendricks and Corey Stoll stand out and elevate the film.

So to me Dark Places really depicts how prejudices, despair, and a bunch of white lies can snow ball and change people's lives forever. It's definitely not thriller of the year but the film is not boring. @wornoutspines