Alone with Her hit theaters in early 2007, a limited release of course. Despite that, I'm surprised that this film hasn't gotten more attention since then. Colin Hanks is Doug, one of those perverted types that carry hidden cameras in their bags to glimpse up women's skirts and the like. While out doing this, he spots Amy (Ana Claudia Talancón) and sets his sights on her for the remainder of the film. He breaks into her apartment and rigs it with hidden cameras, microphones, etc. to use what he learns to try and weasel into her life... and to watch.
The first thing you notice upon watching Alone with Her is the innovative nature in which it's shot. The entire film is seen through Doug's hidden cameras. It throws the viewer off guard, and makes us feel almost as voyeuristic as Doug. It also makes the film so much more unnerving than it would've been had it been shot in a conventional manner. We get a front row seat to the images that we have no right to see, as well as the nastier bits which hit harder when glimpsed through this unknown eye.
Doug is a truly pathetic character. Having no confidence and no life, he watches Amy 24/7. He watches to see what movies and music she likes so he can pretend to have something in common with her when they meet. He has hissy fits when he hears her make a date with another man. In some of the most disturbing sequences of the film, he punishes her, sabotaging her love-life by poisoning her milk and dabbing some kind of skin irritant all over her bed. He sabotages her life time and time again, all while poking the holes needed to weasel himself into her good graces.
This film isn't brutal or graphic, and it doesn't need to be. This does more without gore than something like Inside does with wall-to-wall amounts of it. Alone with Her is a deeply affecting look at the nature of stalkers and voyeurism. It's the type of film that will make you feel unclean after watching, something that will crawl inside of your psyche and stay there.
The first thing you notice upon watching Alone with Her is the innovative nature in which it's shot. The entire film is seen through Doug's hidden cameras. It throws the viewer off guard, and makes us feel almost as voyeuristic as Doug. It also makes the film so much more unnerving than it would've been had it been shot in a conventional manner. We get a front row seat to the images that we have no right to see, as well as the nastier bits which hit harder when glimpsed through this unknown eye.
Doug is a truly pathetic character. Having no confidence and no life, he watches Amy 24/7. He watches to see what movies and music she likes so he can pretend to have something in common with her when they meet. He has hissy fits when he hears her make a date with another man. In some of the most disturbing sequences of the film, he punishes her, sabotaging her love-life by poisoning her milk and dabbing some kind of skin irritant all over her bed. He sabotages her life time and time again, all while poking the holes needed to weasel himself into her good graces.
This film isn't brutal or graphic, and it doesn't need to be. This does more without gore than something like Inside does with wall-to-wall amounts of it. Alone with Her is a deeply affecting look at the nature of stalkers and voyeurism. It's the type of film that will make you feel unclean after watching, something that will crawl inside of your psyche and stay there.