RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Aedonerre I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

plawes-98445 To all those amateur critics out there, (and I am one of them...), not all films need to be acted and directed in the same way.This was an absorbing, mesmerising film. Beautifully shot, acted, and directed with the intention to empathise with the single character, 'Helen'.Yes they used stilted narrative and 'wooden' characters around her, but wasn't this intentional? To draw the viewer into Helen's view of the world and people around her.It may not appeal to everyone but for me it worked.I would recommend this film to anyone that is willing to look at the world through another persons eyes.

jennifer-alongi-richmond Bizarre. Bad. I felt that until the last 7 minutes, that Joy and Helen were the same person. I thought Joy/Helen had multiple personality disorder. I think the directors wanted me to think that. It turns out not to be so, but I can't get over the idea that the directors intentionally fooled me into thinking it. It needs more. It felt cut off without closure. The "re-enactment" was never completed. Who ever heard of re-enacting a crime to be filmed anyway? The only time I have heard of that is for a show like Unsolved Mysteries. I have never heard of it happening within the first days of a missing persons investigation. Maybe they conduct police investigations differently in the UK/Ireland than in the U.S. This film is not for a person who didn't get sufficient sleep the night before. It will put you to sleep rather than intrigue you! Or, if it does intrigue you, you will be left with unanswered questions and wondering why you just wasted an hour and twenty minutes of your time.

imdb-7581 Saw this at the 2008 Sydney Film Festival so apologies if I'm short on detail.This film does look good, with an all-pervasive dreamy quality. That said, the vocabulary of camera movements is eventually too meagre and repetitive. At times it seems that every shot is a slow dolly.Like Bloomer wrote in hir comment, the acting and dialog is peculiarly stilted. I initially took this for a deliberate ironic or alienating effect and I read the film as a satire of English New-Labour era 'caring'. The scenes with the teacher, policewoman and social worker all stuck with me for this reason.But by the end I was forced to conclude that the awkwardness was unintentional and I that I have an overactive imagination. As Alan Donald commented, this film's virtues are simply overwhelmed by bad acting and direction.

aland-3 A college student, Joy, goes missing and the police enlist the aid of another student, Helen, to re-enact Joy's last movements. Helen, an orphan brought up in an institution, lacks everything Joy possessed - family, personality,intelligence, a boy friend. But as her impersonation progresses she starts to hijack Joy's life, including her family and boy friend.This great idea for a film is sabotaged by poor direction and acting. Apart from the lead actress, the actors are wooden (and occasionally downright bad -- I think I could do better myself!). The direction is amateurish.Camera work and editing is professional and well done. The script is adequate.I suspect the producers found themselves financially strapped and had to make do with second rate actors. Helen has the seeds of a good film; seeds that fail to sprout.Worth seeing if you are studying film