First Born

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.

OK well, I've just seen the movie. First I expected a lot from it, it had a promising beginning, dark and creepy paranoia stuff, my favs :) But at one point, I've lost it... And since I'm totally annoyed by this ignorance of mine, can PLEASE someone explain couple of things for me? I get it that the movie was based od PPD, but how exactly does that witchcraft woman fit in? And the ending, what the hell was that?!! Last I concluded (at least I thought I was on the right track) was that she bought that witchcraft book, 'fond out' that the lady was doing some kind of black magic over her and she got lost of that baby doll.

I sincerely thought that the doll was the last piece of that voodoo crap and we'll have a happy ending. But what the hell happened when she buried that doll? And what happened to her, precisely- with her memory, brain or whatever...? I'm furious and I don't get it! So please, if anyone has a good and (more or less) logical version of the possible ending, it would help a lot :) Than U!!

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.

First Born is the exploration of the inner world of a woman suffering a postpartum psychosis. This "Yellow Wallpaper" story is definitely not a Lifetime Network sort of film--it's much darker and scarier. It's downright creepy in a very subtle and artful way. After all the gore and explosions of today's thriller genre it's refreshing to see something so subdued and inward while maintaining a such a high level of suspense and desperation.

Elizabeth Shue is a dancer (and yes, she really looks like a dancer) who is stuck in a huge, spacious and mostly empty house in the suburbs while her rich, emotionally disengaged husband works in the city and comes home late at night, leaving her alone during the days with her newborn. Already a bit obsessive-compulsive, she begins to crack up in a serious way. What follows is rendered with impeccable attention to detail and maximum emotional impact. It is a psychological study but at the same time beautifully rendered visually. "First Born" has no didactic ax to grind, no social message, no deus ex machina in the form of social workers or therapists; it's just a fun scary story for intelligent moviegoers.