First, the acting : On the whole, considering the budget and circumstances (it being a first foray of the director) I've seen much worse acting in films with a much greater pedigree. At times, it's laboured, but not wooden or overtly stilted. So the cast can't be held responsible for failings of the film. The Story isn't really anything "new" either. It has an undercurrent of mystery and mystique, but struggles to engage the viewer by trying way too hard to be enigmatic. If you avoid religiously moral tales, then fear not, this isn't ported from a bible channel.. But a spiritual overseer and play caller is hinted at in the dialogue and the feel of the story. Zero spoilers, but, basically you're watching the town of Rockwell frozen in time after a town tragedy and a young man turns up off the bus and triggers the re commencement of time. Editing and photography are more than adequate, and coupled with the reasonable acting and inoffensive story premise, you'd expect to sit down to watch a low budget B movie that didn't change your life but didn't have you hurling bricks at the screen. You'd expect.. But here's where an unforgivable error of judgement on the part of the Director scuppers ANY chance of engaging his audience... He lets loose the sound editor and the score composer, and basically massacres his own movie. I've seen some awful films, and heard some terrible songs and soundtracks, but this movie is probably the most heavy handed, cheesiest, stinkiest soundtrack I've ever suffered through. Completely jarring, incongruous, overly loud, diabolical lyrics and sweat stained vocals appear from nowhere in situations that lend absolutely no correlation to the story. If you can envisage , say, a sequence of quiet contemplation in a candle lit church, then out of nowhere , with no change of action, a sequence of hip hop tracks followed by a Metallica song suddenly start to play? That's the kind of incongruity in the sound editing. It was so jarring, so contrary to the immersion factor required for movie enjoyment, it left me feeling furious. As such, I can say nothing of the film's storyline or conclusion because I simply didn't care. A woeful series of decisions render this film virtually unwatchable. Give it a miss.
