SYNOPSIS: In the suspense thriller, Gone, Jill Parrish comes home from a night shift to discover her sister Molly has been abducted. Jill, having escaped from a kidnapping a year before is convinced that the same serial killer has come back and taken Molly. The police think JIll is crazy and are unwilling to use their resources to help her. Afraid that Molly will be dead by sundown, she sets out alone on a heart-pounding chase to find the killer, expose his secrets and save her sister.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Even though the producers managed to entice Amanda Seyfried to be their leading lady, “Gone” is sadly yet another paint-by-numbers, predictable serial-killer movie proving there isn’t a shred of imagination left in Hollywood.
The young actress who shot to fame in the musical hit, “Mamma Mia!” plays Jill Parrish, a seemingly normal-looking waitress working at a local eatery and lives with her student sister, Molly. However, Jill suffers from mental problems after the tragic demise of her parents and no one including the police believes she managed to escape from the clutches of her kidnapper a year ago. But when her sister went missing, Jill believes the kidnapper is back for revenge. The problem right now is the police think Jill is crazy and is unwilling to take her case seriously. Taking the matter into her own hands, will Jill manage to save her only kin?
The scripting tries to lead us into wondering if all these happenings are imaginative or real but it turns out to be such a sloppy, amateurish piece of work that you probably knew Jill is not faking it thus killing the suspense quotient. The gaping loopholes are aplenty liked how the police dismissed the works of a serial killer when you have multiple unaccounted missing personalities. Come on, shouldn’t they open up a file or something? To make up for it, there’s some occasional car chases to fill in the holes. And I actually counted Seyfried gets to drive three different types of vehicles in the entire movie. That’s an interesting trivia to me.
It is fun watching Seyfried acting liked a ‘siaocharbo’ (mad woman in dialect) though her beautiful big eyes convinced me she is not at all crazy. Perhaps her co-star in “Chloe”, Liam Neeson inspired her to take on this “Taken” style thriller. I can see she looks dangerous armed with a pistol on the DVD cover and a brief scene of her in a self-defense class shows that she is not to be messed with. That’s about all the acting chops she summoned. Beside Seyfried, the other known face here, Wes Bentley of “American Beauty” fame turned up laughingly in a totally unnecessary role as a cop.
Brazilian director Heitor Dhalia seems to be at a loss with the material with the serial killer looking the least sinister or motivating. When Jill’s old man neighbor looks creepier, you realized something is amiss. At least, Dhalia got the mood right with the dark, rainy weather of Oregon, Portland and the silky green forest in the background.
Hardly a title to recommend further, “Gone” is just plain silly and forgettable. I’m not sure on the other hand if remembering Seyfried’s outline in the shower is a good thing.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
“Gone” is visually presented in an intended low-light atmosphere and the DVD nicely plays out the images, sharp and detailed. Dialogue is clear while the Dolby Digital 2.0 produced enough startling sound effects to jolt you from falling asleep.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
