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Rating: Here it is, one of those cases where the trailer tricks you, and here I am, one of those who got tricked. The movie was presented as one of those horror-thrillers like "The Sixth Sense" or "The Others", but even more chilling. Well, forget the horror, forget the thriller, in fact, it's not even a mystery. None of that. What genre is it? I still haven't found a worthy answer to that question.
A little girl is hit by a car and falls into a coma. Her brother, a few years older, who was with her at the time of the accident, feels terribly guilty for what happened. Suddenly, his hair turns platinum blonde, the how and why of such a change are unknown. There is a strange stick that occasionally appears, which is thought to be linked to some mysterious secret, but no, it's just a strange stick. The girl, given up by many doctors, is taken by her parents (the father is played by the well-known Andy García) to a mysterious clinic where cutting-edge techniques are being experimented with, so advanced that they are not accepted by official medicine. Basically, thanks to state-of-the-art computerized systems and other unspecified devices, the brain, the mind, in short, the consciousness of the comatose person is connected with that of another person who volunteers for the experiment, preferably someone dear to the patient. And here, things seem to get interesting, who knows what mysterious and hidden secrets will be revealed by this journey into the labyrinths of the mind? Who knows which chilling visions! Nothing, no disturbing details, a few childhood traumas here, some very simple phobias there. Nothing scary, nothing shocking. Nothing even remotely exciting.
When you finally realize that the movie is trash and you no longer expect anything good, when you begin to savor the moment of the end credits, when you finally think you're about to get up from that damn chair in that damn cinema room, and damn, you can't wait... ta-da, the plot gets complicated, but not complications that keep you on the edge of your seat, that renew your interest, no! The kind that makes you get up and say "enough! I can't take it anymore!" The famous clinic, in fact, seems to have no authorization to carry out such experimental treatments, and the authorities decide to close it, what do they do? Simple, the brilliant doctor responsible for the new techniques (Angela Basset) decides to move the girl, bed and attached technological contraptions, from the clinic to an isolated farmhouse, lost in the fields; and what does it take, if these were the problems! What nonsense! The police pursue them, but they are the kind of police who wouldn't catch a turtle with its legs cut off. And here we go again with the usual script, with the usual attempts to get in touch with the girl, many try, including extras, but it seems there is no hope. So, could it be a simple drama movie? No, not even that, suddenly, zap, as if by magic, the girl wakes up; and there goes the happy ending!
How an actor (Andy Garcia), with a relatively respectable career behind him, agreed to such a travesty, remains the only true mystery that torments the minds of the viewers.
In short, it was one of those movies to take and redo from scratch, but damn, it would have cost too much! So they recover by editing a nice trailer that straight-up fools you. In the long run, the movie will be forgotten, but in its first days on screen, it will catch just enough fools (myself included) to break even and save the day. That's how things work nowadays. Fortunately, the film didn't stay long in theaters. But somewhere, a DVD is lurking, waiting for the next to fall for it. A piece of advice, let it wait! I forgot, the film is based on a novel, but frankly, I haven't read it and I don't intend to; whether it is better (hopefully) or worse (unlikely!) than the movie, I don't know, but as far as I'm concerned, they are two different products, and the judgment of one does not influence the other and vice versa.
P.S. Far be it from me to advise you on how to spend your time, but don't say you weren't warned!
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