(H)ampered by too many “wait, what?” moments to ever establish any sort of suspense.
Lauren Curran (Christina Ricci) suffers from manic depression and frequent hallucinations. After a particularly stressful night where Lauren believes an intruder was in their home, she and her husband, Russel (Brendan Fletcher,) decide to move out of the city. Their destination is The Pinnacle, a high security, “smart” apartment building in the country.
Once the Currans move in, strange things begin to happen to Lauren. Rather than feeling better, she begins to see strange images on their television. She hears sounds, voices, and music that Russel doesn’t. Worried that the new building is the source of these episodes, she consults with her therapist and tries to tell Russel what she’s seen and heard. Neither one believes her. She’s left to figure things out on her own. Browsing a website about subliminal messages, Lauren enters a chat room and meets Vernon (John Cusack.) Vernon is the only one who doesn’t make her feel crazy. In fact, he might be the only one who can help her solve the mystery.
Directed by Rob W. King and written by Arne Olson (Cop and a Half), Distorted aims to be a sort of high-tech thriller. Unfortunately, it’s hampered by too many “wait, what?” moments to ever establish any sort of suspense. For example, Lauren talks to Vernon on the Internet and, suddenly, he’s meeting her at a coffee shop. Does every town have a local subliminal message expert?
On paper, the concept sounds like it would make for an interesting story. In actuality, the film never stops long enough to make the audience care about anything that’s happening to Lauren. Even when we do find out what’s happening, it doesn’t make much sense at all. (Anyone who might suffer from epilepsy should be warned about the numerous scenes featuring strobe light effects.)
Christina Ricci, who I haven’t seen in anything of note since 2003’s Monster, delivers as good a performance as one could hope to wrangle out of this script. John Cusack, who’s given second billing but appears only in a handful of scenes, delivers his lines as if he doesn’t understand them. Brendon Fletcher sighs a lot and looks vaguely upset.
Filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Distorted features some stunning scenery. So, I give high praise to the location scout. When that’s the biggest compliment I can give a movie, I can’t really recommend it.
1.0 out of 5.0 stars
Buy on Amazon!
