The Ideal (2011) User Reviews

Awful awful awful awful

[TeeBoned · 1/10 · 20 April 2015]

This is bad. Very, very bad. The story plays out as if written by children, with endlessly long and pointless scenes filled with wandering dialog and incredibly wooden acting. There is no atmosphere whatsoever, and no sense of plot, suspense, story arc, or any of the other most basic elements required of a film script. Yet as bad as the acting and story are, the lighting, camera work, direction, set design, and basically every other aspect of the production are worse. The lighting in particular is just awful. Every scene is difficult to look at.

The reviews giving 8, 9, 10 stars are all written by people related to the film. Dead giveaway: every one of the fake reviews recites a list of credits. No real review would carefully note the names of some of the worst actors who will never grace the silver screen again.

I challenge you to make it to the end of the film. I don't think it can be done. Truly terrible.

A story that never gets off the ground

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 21 November 2017]

THE IDEAL is a terrible little indie shot in and around a high school. The story follows a couple of students as they are tasked with doing some special work for one of their teachers, but mystery soon arises at the school. This is the type of film that flirts with the fantasy and horror genres but never gives them a full-blooded exploration. Instead it's talky and endlessly dull, with the usual stilted acting and filler. If you want to see some genuinely spooky high school films, check out the excellent South Korean WHISPERING CORRIDORS series.

Seriously

[ginoraimondo · 3/10 · 21 April 2015]

Come on! Who ever wrote that review is seriously lacking in viewer talent. That's right viewer talent! I give the viewer enough credit to understand good from bad. This movie had the potential to be good and the actors destroyed it. I never stop watching a movie once I start but I had to with this one..thats how bad the acting was. I have been acting for 20 years and am stoutly character and story driving in my tastes. The cinematography was great, i concede that, but the acting had absolutely no peaks and valleys, you don't care about the characters and what happens to them. Alas that is the whole point! When you have a story, yes, very much in the vein of the shining and very well shot in that respect as well, then put in a cast of characters you don't care about. Don't care if they live or die..you lose me and the audience. Look, when a story has an "unknown" entity lurking int the background, the characters MUST pick up the slack to heighten the storyline. They absolutely fail here. Please audience. Watch this film and tell me who's right!

How not to spend an evening

[final_enigma · 1/10 · 22 April 2015]

This movie has achieved something special for me, it's managed to make it onto my personal list of 'worst ever movies' with some of the poorest film-making I've ever come across.

They've tried to buck the trend of repetitive jump scares or OTT CGI, but sadly have replaced them with 1.5 hours of tedium instead.

The acting is so wooden that even an immobile Pinocchio would look more animated, the script is rambling and nonsensical, and even the location which should have been a high point from merely looking at the exterior of the building, was instead made to look like any other high school in the US with absolutely zero feeling of age or character.

Much like other movies in a similar vein, it promises to deliver on suspense and a clever theme, but instead falls utterly flat on both counts leaving nothing more than a miserable 90 minutes of sheer boredom.

Not only should you avoid this like the plague, I began to wonder if actually contracting plague would have been vastly more entertaining and in fact a better way to have spent my time......just awful

Do not operate heavy machinery while watching this film

[tim-arnold777 · 1/10 · 28 April 2015]

It can cause drowsiness and lapses in consciousness. If you struggle with insomnia, watch The Ideal and be prepared for some serious snoozing. Rarely does a film create such a deep and unbroken monotonous boredom leading downward to an unavoidable state of comatose catatonia. It seemed as though even the actors themselves were drifting into intractable stupors from having to act in this hypnotic bit of sedative celluloid. I gave it one star as a film. I would give it 10 stars as one of the most effective sleeping aids I've ever encountered. Not to mention that Alex looked more like a 30 year-old CPA than he did a believable high school student. And how in the world was the actor who portrayed his father billed as? Loser farting father? Man alive!

Wrong continent and place, for the setting of this movie.

[cirisortiz · 5/10 · 29 January 2022]

I gave it a five just because, it was creepy and weird. BUT if the setting had been in Germany, I would have gone higher. They find a book from Germany (haunted, I guess). How did it end up in the US, in a school, that would be more at home somewhere in the Britsh Isles? Or as a mental asylum in the US, in the early 1900's. Can't say much more without being a spoiler. I was confused.

Suspenseful thriller about why you stay away from school during the summer

[dsoreco · 8/10 · 6 August 2012]

To start with what i liked about this movie is that it was a unique story. I would imagine its hard to come up with a plot that hasn't been already done or similar to something that's already out there. The Ideal is neither. Also to learn that it was written by a student who was a junior at the high school it was filmed, Rivka Rappoport, also intrigued me. The imagination and vision of a young mind put to film. This is where the director Wes Tomasz Ciesla comes to play. He does an excellent job with the character development and changes that happens from the introduction of the characters to the end of the movie. Especially the relationship between student Alexander Dessler and his teacher Mr.Zenidro. This movie is hopefully the first of many films for the cast and crew. I look forward to see what Wes and Rivka's next project might be.

The Shining on a $1 budget

[jessicafischerqueen · 6/10 · 4 May 2015]

The Ideal (2011)must be as close to an outright copy of The Shining as it could be without getting sued for making it.

It also appears to have had a production budget of $1, or perhaps "around three fiddy."

I almost stopped watching it six times during the first 20 minutes, but something kept pulling me deeper into the film. It's utterly without pretension.

For example, the pretty, but dressed down, heroine has very attractive and very large breasts. Wisely, the filmmakers portray them in a naturalistic manner; they don't keep shoving them in your face. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

All of the characters have a goofy kind of charm, and this ingenuous production may sneak up on you too, if you give it a chance. I'm glad I did.

The film does introduce a central theme distinct from that of The Shining, involving an esoteric "interpretation" of time seen through the lens of Nazi Germany, Nietszche, and Kafka. I found this aspect to be quite interesting. I wish I had been given the chance to watch this film in Philosophy 104 instead of having to wade through desultory and truncated text books that were probably also published on a budget of $1.

This movie is definitely not for those in a hurry. It takes time to get into this, but if you do keep watching the atmosphere becomes more and more creepy.

The plot arc is just different enough from The Shining that I wondered how it was going to end.

IMDb users give it a gaudy 3.8, but I give it a 6.5 and a thumbs up.

horror from the opening of innocence to the horrifying climax

[wjaklik · 9/10 · 8 August 2012]

"The Ideal" is Wes Ciesla's cinematic masterpiece of horror from the opening of innocence to the horrifying climax that leaves you questioning your personal acuity. While it is based on the story written by the high school student, Ciesla's cinematography certainly brings it to the level of mainstream classics. When Julia and Alexander take the summer job at the vast and empty high school building to work for Mr. Zenidro, the mood takes viewers back to their own high school days. First scenes invite them for more comfortable chair position (I watched the film on the big screen at Anthology Film Archives in New York), but not for long. The high school building has a secret with a sinister life of its own which gradually invades main characters as well as viewers minds. Use of music specially composed for this film; along with sound effects meticulously enhance the horror. Most scenes were screened at night. Ciesla directing is brilliant; from camera angles and lightning to artistic and dramatic aspects of the film. The cast delivers performances that are uniformly outstanding. I'd definitely recommend seeing it on the big screen.

Two high school students take a summer job at their school and learn way more than they could have ever imagined in haunting and unusual ways.

[acavallo4 · 7/10 · 6 August 2012]

The Ideal is a hauntingly marvelous film. With obvious inspiration from iconic films such as "The Shining," this film doesn't fail to capture the audience's interest and attention throughout the entirety of the film. The suspense is wonderfully accompanied by a hauntingly beautiful, original soundtrack that does not go unnoticed. The eerie feel of film is not only attributed to suspenseful soundtrack and plot, but beautifully juxtaposed with outstanding imagery of the intricate and well crafted, rustic architecture of the high school where the film takes place. The building resembles an old fashioned castle both inside and out, and its structure is a crucial component to the film that is expertly captured through the cinematography. The performances given by supporting actors Todd Murphy, John Dean, and leading role Dennis Brito will leave you satisfyingly spooked and wanting more. The Ideal successfully brings forth a reality of an extremely intolerant world driven by madness and does this by blurring the lines of past and present.

An excellent character study for teenage hearts

[moomoo1691 · 10/10 · 1 August 2012]

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the screening of this movie. This movie is a definite character study in its extreme. All movies throw us in hypothetical situations and we imagine a solution with the characters in the movie. In the most suspenseful way this movie throws us into a situation of all teenagers' nightmare; How to deal with a broken heart. I hope I am teaching more than math in my class. I hope students are learning how to persevere and deal with difficult situation whether solving math or broken hearts. This is a movie that all schools around the world should have a screening with its students and have a discussion. Because I sincerely hope my students learn to deal with the situations depicted in the movie. The movie also shows what happens when you do not learn to deal with the situations. Go see it you must!

The Ideal shows what happens to two students who work in their transformed high school in the summer.

[alictwomb · 7/10 · 30 July 2012]

"The Ideal" is a film whose atmosphere grabs you from the beginning. Wes Ciesla's use of the actual school he taught in with its Tudor details and secret nooks and crannies is the key to the movie. The high school itself becomes the main character as two teenagers, Julia and Alexander, explore its corners one summer, find strange people from the Custodian to a German teacher, and a pair of students who seem to be transformed into zombie like students. They find their history teacher, Mr. Z, has become obsessed with writing a history that frightens the students..As the summer goes on, the mystery deepens to its dramatic conclusion.