I wanted to write a review to say that Separation isn't a bad movie. Or rather, it's a little bad but also misunderstood. The core of the problem with the movie is an inexplicably misogynist attitude towards the wife. The movie is trying to portray her as crazy and goes just a little too far so you think after she dies she's some sort of malevolent spirit, when that turns out to be only party true.
Before I say anything else, Brian Cox does a great job. It's a pretty underwritten part and he's expected to turn from wanting to see the main character behind bars to remorseful grandpa very quickly and the range of emotion he gives us with not a lot of material is just real pro stuff. He understands when it's a drama and when it's a horror and is always on point.
That's the crux of the movie's problem is that it's mostly a serious drama about a troubled single father, a cartoonist who has to find a real job to support his child and be the adult he never learned to be. It's worth noting the main character never raises his voice, never criticizes his child, never says a bad word about his wife. The movie wants to make him the put upon martyr and the actor does a good job, but it almost seems like someone is telling the story of their own divorce. And of course THEY come off as a saint and the other person the devil himself. The movie just has this self- satisfied righteousness that he's a sensitive artist and therefore valuable and to be cherished. It just doesn't his that tone and we're left with an obviously incompetent man refusing help in raising a child, which kind of makes him less sympathetic.
There's a sense of technical skill to it though. Cinematography is generally pretty nice, the horror scenes and unique with interesting makeup and designs, and the music sounds ok. It's just over a hundred minutes and pads that time with long quiet scenes of father and daughter talking about stuff, and him talkin about work, and his ex-wife... And it's like, what is this a Lifetime movie? And then a spooky witch shows up and the movie is Insidious for a second. It could have been ten minutes shorter (at least!).
And lastly, the babysitter. If he's interested, then he should not be paying this girl falling over herself to constantly flirt with him. He's so dumb. And after she kisses him, he acts like nothing happened. You're her boss! He needs a mommy around him all the time and it seems disrespectful to just act like she isn't doing what she's obviously trying to do. So when the end comes, I'm like, this is all YOUR FAULT to him.
One thing about the ending, the spooky clown guy I think is some kind of previous ghost that when the wife died somehow helped her manifest herself. So there's some kind of Insidious-esque universe at play that it's setting up.
The thing is, with this movie I meant to leave it on in the background but I found myself sitting up watching it a few times. If they'd cut ten minutes and given the actresses some different takes that don't make them look as crazy as Judge Doom dipping those shoes in the dip, it might be a decent sleeper. But sometimes it looks like the editor did a bunch of fancy angles and tints on the monster scenes and called it a day.
Anyway, your call, slow moving, inexplicably wife hating, drama about a sad sack widowed cartoonist struggles to ink for a living while him and his daughter are haunted by a spooky owl witch woman and some kind of... contortionist? If that sounds like a reasonable Saturday afternoon than you could do worse.
Before I say anything else, Brian Cox does a great job. It's a pretty underwritten part and he's expected to turn from wanting to see the main character behind bars to remorseful grandpa very quickly and the range of emotion he gives us with not a lot of material is just real pro stuff. He understands when it's a drama and when it's a horror and is always on point.
That's the crux of the movie's problem is that it's mostly a serious drama about a troubled single father, a cartoonist who has to find a real job to support his child and be the adult he never learned to be. It's worth noting the main character never raises his voice, never criticizes his child, never says a bad word about his wife. The movie wants to make him the put upon martyr and the actor does a good job, but it almost seems like someone is telling the story of their own divorce. And of course THEY come off as a saint and the other person the devil himself. The movie just has this self- satisfied righteousness that he's a sensitive artist and therefore valuable and to be cherished. It just doesn't his that tone and we're left with an obviously incompetent man refusing help in raising a child, which kind of makes him less sympathetic.
There's a sense of technical skill to it though. Cinematography is generally pretty nice, the horror scenes and unique with interesting makeup and designs, and the music sounds ok. It's just over a hundred minutes and pads that time with long quiet scenes of father and daughter talking about stuff, and him talkin about work, and his ex-wife... And it's like, what is this a Lifetime movie? And then a spooky witch shows up and the movie is Insidious for a second. It could have been ten minutes shorter (at least!).
And lastly, the babysitter. If he's interested, then he should not be paying this girl falling over herself to constantly flirt with him. He's so dumb. And after she kisses him, he acts like nothing happened. You're her boss! He needs a mommy around him all the time and it seems disrespectful to just act like she isn't doing what she's obviously trying to do. So when the end comes, I'm like, this is all YOUR FAULT to him.
One thing about the ending, the spooky clown guy I think is some kind of previous ghost that when the wife died somehow helped her manifest herself. So there's some kind of Insidious-esque universe at play that it's setting up.
The thing is, with this movie I meant to leave it on in the background but I found myself sitting up watching it a few times. If they'd cut ten minutes and given the actresses some different takes that don't make them look as crazy as Judge Doom dipping those shoes in the dip, it might be a decent sleeper. But sometimes it looks like the editor did a bunch of fancy angles and tints on the monster scenes and called it a day.
Anyway, your call, slow moving, inexplicably wife hating, drama about a sad sack widowed cartoonist struggles to ink for a living while him and his daughter are haunted by a spooky owl witch woman and some kind of... contortionist? If that sounds like a reasonable Saturday afternoon than you could do worse.