The Cry of the Owl (2010)

Awesome Movie

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Waste of time. So many better movies out there that deserve your time.It fails at both farce and thriller, not being funny enough for one and too ridiculous for the other.Highly intelligent lead character would not react the way he does to SO many irrational people and circumstances.One nutter in his life would be feasible, but everyone being a nutter doesn't make it a good farce. And yet he doesn't either suspect anything, nor does he apply his intelligence one iota to protect or extricate himself. Keeps on answering the phone in the middle of the night, keeps on plodding along just putting up with it all as if this is normal.

THE CRY OF THE OWL is a tense, somewhat disjointed story with Kafkaesque overtones ('marked by surreal distortion and a sense of impending danger'): had the film been distributed with the information that it taken from a 1962 novel by Patricia Highsmith ('Strangers on a Train', 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' and the follow-up novels with that character, etc) it would have likely garnered a larger audience. It is a strange psychological thriller that slowly works its way under the viewer's skin. The screenplay was written by director Jamie Thaves who successfully captures Highsmith's extraordinary story. Robert Forrester (Paddy Considine) is a troubled, depressed but decent young man who retreats from the big city and his ex-wife for the tranquility of a small town in Pennsylvania. For some not obvious reason he begins to night stalk a young woman Jenny Thierolf (Julia Stiles), gazing in the dark at the apparently happy Jenny alone in her secluded house. Jenny inadvertently befriends Robert despite the fact that Jenny is in a relationship with Greg Wyncoop (James Gilbert): Greg confronts Robert, a fight ensues and Robert flees after saving Greg from drowning in the river. In a twist of circumstances Jenny begins to stalk Robert, admitting that she has fallen in love with him, but Robert avoids her advances as he is still in the process of an ugly divorce with his wife Nickie (Caroline Dhavernas), a strange behaving woman who feeds on Robert's lack of self worth. When Greg goes missing Robert becomes the prime suspect. With the police on his case the 'crime' becomes threatening, and in typical Highsmith fashion, everything twists and turns at the end, creating a claustrophobic and irrational series of events until the story ends with some questions answered and others left hanging. The actors are excellent and the cinematography by Luc Montpellier adds to the haunting creepiness of the film. Jeff Daniels' minimal music score underlines the tension. Before watching this film, remind your self that you are dealing with Patricia Highsmith's brand of mystery and the film will be more appreciated. Grady Harp

Virtually ignored on it's release, barely reviewed in the press, I think this is a great film that is misunderstood and unfairly misjudged. This movie is essentially a dark comedy and a bad dream rolled into one. The story, based on the novel by Highsmith, is absurd, of course it's a comedy as all Highsmith's work is essentially darkly humorous, come on, a stalker who gets stalked by his victim? The director has a very subtle touch and I think this is why so many people watching this film are lost, the film doesn't make conventional choices, it simply doesn't make it easy on the viewer that's why so many people feel confused by this movie, but in my opinion many viewers these days are unable to recognize when a film is interesting, doing something different from the norm, and this film is doing exactly that. The film has touches of Lynch, Cronenberg and the Cohens about it yet refuses to follow any of those directors paths.You could say it is quite old fashioned, it relies heavily on mise on scene, a lost art today in most films, but to label it Hitchcockian is doing the film a great disservice because the label is too easy to apply here and the director, I believe, is well aware of the obvious comparison and is constantly playing with those notions. This is perhaps more a philosophical thriller than a psychological one and perhaps that is why it doesn't satisfy everyone, maybe the film could have benefited from a little more tension, but for me it is an intelligent dissection of the dangers of the romantic mind.Robert wants the perfect woman, he stares at her through her window as if in a painting, but he knows the perfect woman doesn't exist, when Jenny invites Robert in the 'real' woman is exposed as being even more nuts than him. Look at what Robert says to Nickie, his ex wife, at the end, 'when I first saw you , you were like a statue, then you moved and it was all...downhill from there on in.' He's only happy with the frozen image of a woman, I believe both Jenny and Nickie's death are kind of willed by this man in some dark way, set in motion by him at the very least, the women he loves are more beautiful to him in death (as statues) than alive. At the end Robert gets what he wishes for, to be in the painting (the window) himself but always alone. Recommended only for those with a wicked sense of humour, patience and a sharp intellect.

I have never read the novel, nor heard of the movie. After reading some of the reviews here, I decided to give it a shot. And I have to say, I do not regret it. This is a very dark movie with disturbed main characters, greatly acted by Robert Considine and Julia Stiles. This isn't your typical fast-paced Hollywood thriller. I consider this movie to be "different", the plot develops slowly and is very unpredictable, which makes it in my opinion very enjoyable. I totally recommend this movie to anyone, who likes dramas / thrillers with a dark touch, and enjoys great acting. I give it a 7 out of 10.