Solitary

I watched this movie based on the reviews from IMDb. I totally disagree with most of the reviews I have read. This basically B movie trying to give you a psychiatric drama. What you actually get is bad acting. The production value is less than that of a made for TV movie on one of the low end cable networks. The film really only has 2 main characters the woman trying to figure things out and her psychologist. Almost everything takes place in her house. The plot is pointless it doesn't make you want to watch it to find out what is really going on. I am sorry for rambling but they force you to write 10 lines if it the movies is a waste. The out come of this movie is that it makes you feel angry that you wasted your time watching it. Do yourself a favor and skip this movie.

This movie held my interest from start to finish. It was part Hitchcock, with a light touch of David Lynch with an ending I did not see coming. But one thing that really helped create the vibe of the film was the very good music score, which I don't think no one here has mentioned in reviewing this. I'm surprised I had not seen or heard of this movie in the 10 years since it's release...I feel it's better than a lot of films of a similar genre. Catch it on Anazon Prime if you can.

This is not a great film, but it is far, far better than the 5 average it has received. It is a mystery with a bit of science fiction added, and I suspect it is the science fiction part that is bothering some of the viewers. But even if you hate science fiction, you should give this movie a view because it will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Who is good and who is evil? You will not know until the very end, and the ending will be nothing like you have seen before. You will be left breathless and it will make you think. The acting is very good, and the timing and discontinuities are very well designed to keep you guessing. Don't miss this movie if you have a chance to see it.

Solitary (2011)

The lead actress here, Amber Jaeger, might be the only real acting talent in this fairly small cast. But she's really good, as she was in he husband's recent movie, "Take Me Home." In a way this is a suburban middle class version of the Ashley Judd look at insanity, "Bug." And like "Bug," this recent movie is low budget and deeply flawed.

And there is also a huge twist near the end that is very clever, and you can see a much better movie in it all by rearranging the clues to the twist so the audience can build some expectation. I can't say more without ruining that part of it, but I can point out the obvious that any viewer will discover in short time--the movie is slow, redundant, and confusing. It's highly improbable (or so it seems). If it had been even more improbable, so that you didn't just think it was bad writing in a bad movie, you'd start to wonder why it was improbable, what kind of weird "Memento" like trick is at work.

No such luck. Instead we have to see Jaeger's fighting her mind, and her fear of open spaces, and ignore the weird facts. Once you realize what is really happening (in the last ten minutes) you'll wonder why the whole movie couldn't have been an extraordinary mind trip, a fanciful game of invention and imagination. But that would make sense (like it does, in a weirdly parallel way, in the Robin Williams romance, "What Dreams May Come").

This is an indie production made in 2009, but in one of the common and frustrating aspects of that world, it sometimes takes really long to find a distributor, and so it's out in 2011. The director, Greg Derochie, is a special effects guy from Hollywood (everyone wants to be a director, you see), and in a huge irony, the special effects here are clunky. (I'm going to guess he didn't transfer to a low budget world very well.)

Anyway, I love movies, and I rarely say this, but unless you're an Amber Jaeger fan (there must be several of us in the country--we'll see more of her), I'd skip it.

Solitary looks like another damsel-in-distress Lifetime TV movie, but it has some decent tricks up its sleeve. The mystery is enough to keep you interested. The apparent resolution is cliched, but it turns out to be a red herring, and the actual reveal at the end is...well, not very original, but I bought it anyway. Maybe I was just in a charitable mood. Amber Jaeger's performance is really what knits things together. I'd like to see her in some other films with better scripts. Entertaining, and worth a watch if you're not feeling too critical.