Meander

Though I reckon one should not waste too much time on crawling. Sorry I mean on praying - crawling is the thing one has to do ... and quite fast too. For those who have seen something like Cube: try not to compare these movies against each other. Yes similarities are there and it will be tough not to hold this under the microscope.

Having said that, this works as a tense and claustrophobic one woman show almost all the way through. Motives and motivations may be lost on you - you may hate certain decisions that are being made ... but overall there is not time to think about what is happening. Forward is the way to go. But there is also some philosophical note to it. So while this is quite short on dialog and spoken words, when something is being said, it may carry more weight. Depending if you are up to hear and absorb them.

Very well staged and shot and quite the tour de force (no pun intended) for our main character ... obviously the ending may elevate or break the whole thing for you ... I can't tell you which way it will swing for you ...

To me this film was, to just quite plain and simply put it, " an absolute Meandering heap of junk"! It uneqivocally had no clear purpose or direction. Its an agonizing 1h:30m:46s of dreary nothing that you, at first, try to work out what the plot is so that you have some idea of a story; you soon give that up though as you quickly realize that you have become the meandering emptiness.

Someone said that it was a film that had you weaving through a discovery of different emotions...What the heck! Thats just arty-farty, complete and utter pompous clap trap! There is nothing hidden in this film, there is nothing emotive in this and there most definitely is no point in this. For a film to work it doesn't necessarily need a middle but, it absolutely must have a start and a definitive end; be it a closed end finàle or an open ended road to a possible sequel.

Unfortunately we have reached one of those fad time periods again in film-land...the escape thrillers! We had "Escape Room" (2018) and its sequel 2: Tournament of Champions, and a few more not so memorable also rans...just add this one to the latter description.

Un score nul de ma part mesdames et messieurs!

A zero score from me ladies and gentlemen!

Crawl and crawl and crawl

A new French sci-fi mystery where a woman is caught in a series of tunnel with multiple traps.

The movie started out slow, and this really requires some patience before things started to pick up. Honestly, the traps were not too scary like in similar movies. Then, when the twist started, it wasn't too surprising because this was done countless times before. The development of the main character was again, pretty typical, and was supposed to tie to the story. However, it really didn't make a lot of sense and felt cheesy.

There were still things that worked in the movie. Even though the progression was slow, there were still intense scenes that kept me on the edge. The clean camera work and some gores elevated the horror aspect and helped with the scenes.

Overall, it's a mystery that is done better before. 5.5/10.

Sometimes a film is confusing and you absolutely have to find out what is was about, while other times a film is confusing and you just find it annoying. 'Meander' was unfortunately the latter. I think I understand for the most part what it was intended to mean, but I certainly don't care enough to go seeking out confirmation. More than anything I just wanted it to be over by the end.

Which is a shame because it started out so promisingly. A decent opening scene setting things up and then a little mini-twist. Then we are introduced to the tunnels and get a real 'Cube' (one of my favourite sci-fi films) feel. But then the next 30 minutes are very disappointing. There is no character interaction in sight - which doesn't have to be a bad thing - but on this occasion made everything very dull and monotonous.

I was also disappointed by how simple the premise ultimately was. I won't describe what she needed to do, but it was so basic it created no intrigue whatsoever. Sadly I didn't enjoy 'Meander' much after being excited to see it for a while now. Not one I'd recommend.

This film reminds me far more of the current 'Escape Room' type films, than 'Cube', other than it is a single person, and not a group.

Since there is little dialog, it may be the type of film to watch on a second monitor of your computer system while you work on something else.

Curious, since the song and dialog at the beginning are in English in the version I saw (DVD title Meander, Gravitas Ventures release) but the ending dialog was in French with English subtitles.