Sum of Existence

Seriously. 13 votes and this thing has a rating of 7.5? That's what happens when the director and producers are allowed to vote on their own product. Although in a forum like this I guess that's impossible to police. I won't dignify this piece of trash with any more time - I just needed to provide a Public Service Announcement. DON'T SEE THIS FILM!!! PLEASE!! Even if mere grade school amateurs has made this film, you'd still be hard pressed to smile and lie to them about their chances of making it to Hollywood. .............oh dear lord - IMDb requires a minimum ten lines of text. I'll just blather on for a bit now so I can meet their quota. Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah. There. And I guarantee you that this review was less painful than the film it's about.

Director/Writer Jon Cohen really tried to produce a good film, and did so with flying colours. Elizabeth Murphy(portrayed by Australian actress-Brooke Anderson) is very believable, she is just like every 16/17 year old, with a twist. Brooke "Mikey" Anderson brings Liz to life, you can really believe what is going on. While I was watching this movie, I could hear myself thinking what you would think if you were there. Its amazing what a bit of effort and determination will do when it comes to making a movie. Congratulations must go out to Jon Cohen, Tim Maddocks, Brooke Anderson and the rest of the crew involved. Lets hope the team does another Australian film soon!

"Sum of existence" is amateurish: amateurish acting, scripting and direction. I came across this film on TV one night and assumed it to be either an acting school's end of year film, or someone's private project. I watched it in disbelief that a, it had been made and b, it was being shown on free-to-air television. When I discovered it was backed with government money and all involved were allegedly professional, I was shocked. It is a poor attempt at a thriller, with clichéd situations. I can find nothing to recommend in this film. It is an embarrassment to the Australian film industry. The industry here is notoriously underfunded and it makes me angry that money should have been spent on this schlock. All those who were involved in funding and making it should have a good long hard look at themselves.

I would like to add some balance to th previous "review" in whom was a little on the harsh side.

SUM OF EXISTENCE was shot on digital beta (I bothered to ask what it was shot on) so having some limited knowledge of the film making process and how something that was shot as a "telemovie" would translate onto the big screen, I understood the look the film had when it was translated to the "big screen".

JD COHEN (writer, director and producer) has produced a worth while film for his maiden voyage into the film industry. While it was shot on an almost "shoe string budget", he and his team did a fine job for their first feature film. I certainly believe it was better than most directorial debuts I have seen over the years.

As for the person picking the "plot holes" in the script, well hey, welcome to the world of film making. I would certainly like to see some films of his or hers that DO NOT have plot holes (when thinking of plot holes, let us not forget a certain big budget sci-fi in which the world was saved when we uploaded a computer virus in an ALIEN computer .... and we think that windows and mac have compatibility problems ... HA!).

SUM OF EXISTENCE was well acted and well directed in my humble opinion (especially when the very small if not non-existent budget is taken into account!). This opinion I "qualify" as an indie film maker myself.

Above all things, the most important aspect to consider is that JD COHEN and the team have GOT OUT THERE AND DONE THE THING !!! Many plan to shoot something, won't try for funding and winge and moan about the state of our film industry in this country (which admittedly isn't all that good!!!), then they will have a dig at someone and their team that HAS GONE OUT THERE and MADE THE FILM.

Kudos to JD COHEN, TIM MADDOCKS and the rest of the team.

Kudos to SUM OF EXISTENCE.

Lets see more people willing to take a chance and get out there.

PS. I have been in contact with both JD and Tim since the screening, both are in planning and negotiations for their next respective films ... with substantial budgets .... so there's another reason for us all to get off our butts and make our films ... after all you never know where that project will take you

Sum of Existence is an extraordinary film that breaks with one of the most cliché'd traditions of psychological thrillers -- the idea that hypnosis is a panacea that can be used to solve problems. In fact, the story centers around the way that the use of hypnosis takes a girl who has already been brutally wounded and unbalances her in ways that almost get her -- and others -- killed.

Liz Murphy is a normal, vivacious teen, who was brutally assaulted by a stranger and left to die. Months after the attack, she lives in a strange sea of denial and confusion. Attempting to go about her normal life, she doesn't understand why so many people treat her differently, even her best friend and her parents, nor why she's periodically haunted by strange, frightening flashes of... something...

What Liz doesn't know is that, in the aftermath of her attack, she broke down so completely that, as a last resort, her parents turned to a psychiatrist who used hypnosis to block her memories. In the short term, it helped her to recover. But it's left her behaving in ways that her friends and family find disturbingly out of character, and THEY are still dealing with the fallout of what happened to her, even if she no longer is. Worst of all, her assailant is furious that she's forgotten him, and is determined to make her remember.

Although a lot of the conventions of the traditional thriller are in place, including the cat-and-mouse game that soon develops between Liz and her stalker, what truly distinguishes this film is the way it delves into the minds of its characters. It explores Liz's fragile state, and the way simply burying a trauma such as hers only worsens its impact. It explores the mind of her psychiatrist, a woman who becomes far too attached to her patients and can't always discern (because she's lost her objectivity) what is truly best for them. And it explores the mind of the twisted psychopath who has become obsessed with Liz's destruction.

Brooke Anderson is a luminous actress, definitely one to watch. She makes Liz's plight very real, and yet manages, even when Liz is at her worst, to imbue the character with a quiet strength that comes to the fore. Liz is nobody's victim, and her mind is nobody's playground, and watching her take back her life and her sanity is a very triumphant experience.