Elsewhere

Although the Movie Looks Pretty Good and is Slickly Presented for a Very Low Budget Entry in the Teen Hottie in Peril Category, this is Far from an Engaging Story and is So Bland, Considering its Subject Matter, One Wonders, What's the Point?

If it's an Attempt at Making a Non-Gory, Serial-Killer, Social Media Warning, it Mostly Fails to Make an Impression, of Any Kind. It is Even Less than Mediocre Because it is Even Less than Anything Approaching Entertaining for its Target Audience.

The Acting is Universally Bad, Especially the Non-Hotties. The Trailer Park Mother is a Clichéd, Chain Smoking, TV Watcher who is So Familiar it Bores to Tears. The Shaking Alcoholic Mother of the First Missing Girl Overacts So Much it is Amazing the Director Allowed the Performance to Stand. The Male Actors, the Cop, the Nerd, and the Father are All just Awful.

Overall, it is Not Even Worth a Watch because it is Anemic, Embarrassingly Acted, and Fails to Deliver the Minimum of Suspense and Thrills that is Central to this Kind of Thing.

Note...For Fairness and Balance...there is one good Acting turn and that is Olivia Dawn York. She delivers the only believable Character in a Cast of Thespians who would have benefited from a Director that seemed to be Elsewhere.

(2009) Elsewhere THRILLER/ SUSPENSE/ MYSTERY

Watchable straight-to-rental Nancy Drew-like mystery thriller co-written and directed by Sheldon Lettich about a couple of missing teens, and the one looking for one of them who happens to be the star, Sarah (Anna Kendrick) of the movie's best friend, Jillian (Tania Raymonde) meeting someone on-line. Expect plot holes, logic and the fact that viewers may be able to guess the perpetrators doing this before the star herself even knows herself. I appreciate the fact that their are no cringing-like moments, and that the tone itself is reminiscent of a Nancy Drew novel.

It seems like I spend half my time watching poorly-produced and horribly-acted movies with good stories and ideas, and the other half watching well-produced movies with zero imagination and stock story lines. "Elsewhere" falls into the latter category. The actresses (and actors) are cute and do a decent job. (Keep your eye on the "weird' girl.) The production values are quite good, with interesting, but not impressive, cinematography. The whole movie is definitely not low-budget in appearance or finish.

But the story and script are just awful...retreads of thrillers done hundreds of times before. Trust me, you'll pick out the bad guy within the first few minutes of the movie. No hints are required. There is very little tension in the movie, except for the few action sequences. Contrary to what you might expect from the tag lines, there isn't any "string" of mysterious disappearances. One girl disappears and, five years later, so does another one. The cell phone texting angle has been done many times before and much better, so no tension there. The typical (and stereotyped) red herrings abound.

Finally, towards the end of the movie, you get a scene which ought to be subtitled "Scriptwriters Got Tired Here" or "Director Couldn't Figure Out How to Film This the Right Way." Two teens try to sneak up on a farmhouse where a (potential) bad guy is sleeping by creeping through a cornfield. Since they want to be stealthy, they (of course) bring along fluorescent tube lanterns. No, nobody would notice THOSE being carried through a completely dark cornfield at night, would they? And who would ever notice the bright light coming form the completely unlit barn when the kids finally get there? Unfortunately, this is typical of the writing in this film.

Well-made, but still pretty worthless and unexciting.

So many direct-to-DVD films, especially horror-thriller ones are terrible that when something like Elsewhere comes along, some semblance of hope is restored. Writer-director Nathan Hope has constructed a mystery that while fairly easy to figure out rather quickly, still holds your interest throughout just to see how we get to where we think the story is going.

A lot of credit has to go to the cast. As the intrepid, intelligent, and likable lead, Anna Kendrick, now most known because of her role in the Twilight films, does a great job of making us believe that she cares deeply about finding her missing friend. She portrays a sense of screen presence usually not seen from actors of her age. Based on her work here, she, instead of Kristen Stewart, should have been given the role of Bella in the aforementioned vampire saga. It'll be interesting to see where Kendrick's career goes because she definitely has potential.

As the missing friend, Tania Raymonde has charisma, managing to make what easily could have been a despicably obnoxious character oddly likable, important because we actually care about discovering her fate. She and Kendrick share a nice rapport as well, almost instantly believable as best friends in spite of their varying personalities.

Strong writing and a dynamic cast make Elsewhere definitely a place worth visiting.

I thought this was a pretty good movie overall. It is not a horror but it contains a thrill or two. Its very real and it has a smidgen of mystery to it as well. I thought it was a good twist and I love movies that allow enough time for you to work out the ending or who it was! So some might say it was a 'slow' film. But it kept me interested long enough. It has pretty much no romance in it though. But I have grown to love the main character in lots of her movies overtime. So if your running low on movies to watch or a little bored you could enjoy this one. I enjoyed it. Corny, Mystery and humour all in the one. so i have rated it 7/10 because it doesn't really tickle my sensitive nerve which i love when movies do.