Driftwood (1997)
When Sarah walks alone along the desolate beach one day she find an unconscious man, who has been brought to land by the waves. When he awakens he doesn't remember anything. He has no name and no past. His dependence lies on Sarah. A role that makes her forget her loneliness and she decides to therefore lie about their situation... She says that they are situated on an island, where no one can reach them. From now, his life lies in her hands.
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Great Film overall
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
In Ireland, the lonely artist Sarah (Anne Brochet) finds an unconscious castaway (James Spader) drowned at the beach with a broken leg. She brings him home and treats him. When he awakens, he has amnesia and can not remember who he is or what has happened to him. Sarah tells that they are isolated in an island and a boat will arrive with supplies only a couple of months later. However they are indeed in the continent but Sarah hides the location from the man. Along the days, she feels obsessed by him and she seduces him and they have a love affair. When he feels better, he decides to snoop around trying to leave the island. But the deranged Sarah will do anything to keep him with her."Driftwood" is a suspenseful romance with a story of loneliness, insanity and obsession. The plot uses parts of the storyline of "Misery" and other films of attraction. Anne Brochet gives a great performance and has a great chemistry with James Spader. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Prisioneiro da Ilha" ("Prisoner of the Island")
MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!Boring would be complimentary. This movie lacks everything, no drama, no passion, no nothing... It's a mixture of somebody else's ideas (the broken leg? Flowers in the bed while he's asleep? Trying to break his leg again? The man being kept in a bedroom... Her discomforting passion/obsession towards him! Come on!). The soundtrack is even worse than the plot itself. I really don't see the point in having some oh-so-romantic strings highlighting the sentence: "I made apple pie!" Really, don't waste your time watching it. It's absolutely not worth it. Useless.
When an unknown man with amnesia (Spader) is washed up on a secluded beach of Northern Ireland, he is taken in by a solitary eccentric spinster (Brochet)and it becomes immediately apparent that she has "control issues." Since he has a broken leg, he's temporarily at her mercy and tries to humor her as she becomes increasingly strange. Brochet plays "Sarah" so well that the viewer soon surmises that beneath her elfin winsomeness lies some dangerous emotional and mental instability which will eventually erupt. She succeeds in seducing the stranger and thereafter regards him as her personal possession. The arguments with her old harpy of a mother are telling. When the couple have a special candlelit dinner commemorating his sexual surrender, she appears wearing a weird lacy gown strongly suggesting the mad Miss Havisham in "Great Expectations." Viewer interest will be maintained until the inevitable tragic result of the man breaking free of the coerced relationship which bears a familiar parallel in reverse to "The Collector."
I thought that this movie was lovely, it had a great plot and the actors did their jobs well. I don't think that this was a slow movie. I would suggest that any human watch Driftwood if they want to see a beautiful yet tragic film.