Z/Web

I was curious about this film because I made a similar movie short (“The Dilemma”) about ten years ago (in mine, it’s a website that offers the money for a mouse click instead of a button on a box). Unfortunately, this is a dreadful mess. It is truly one of the worst films I have ever seen. That said, there are aspects I liked very much: the problem is the whole package fails miserably. (Note: I will avoid spoilers in my comments, not that this movie could be spoiled any more than it does to itself, but I won’t reveal the “twists” upon which it depends just in case you want to see it.) The main problem is that the main premise of a moral dilemma is never really explored. It’s set up (“push the button and someone dies and you get a million dollars”) but never really debated. After the button is pushed (not much of a story without that happening), the film veers off into unknown territory. There seems to be a vast conspiracy happening, with mysterious people and events, strange effects, supernatural stuff, etc. You are basically bewildered and confused for the next hour. That’s not necessarily a problem if the final explanation is a good one. The problem I have with that explanation is two-fold. First, it’s a cheap cop-out, akin to a beginning writer ending a story with “and then he woke up.” Second, even if you ignore the flaws of the cop-out, the film could have gone further and explored the ramifications of that explanation which would have been a new and interesting exploration into ethics. But the film doesn’t do that and instead ends with a bizarre and meaningless and illogical new “dilemma” which makes no sense, is horribly grim and depressing, and leaves you wondering why you wasted two hours of your life watching this dreck. So basically this film is a decent set-up, a middle that is fascinating but convoluted, with an explanation that doesn’t justify any of the nonsense that precedes it, and a conclusion that as unsatisfying as any I’ve seen. There are parts of this that are brilliant: my favorite was the conversation with the babysitter and the husband, where she’s apparently possessed or something and her words have double-meanings that freak out the husband. Some of the weird stuff is very well done, extremely creepy and bizarre without elaborate special effects. But all this is piecemeal and none of it fits together in any rational way. Frustrating.

One final note. I discovered after I’d seen the film that this was done by the director of the cult classic Donnie Darko, something that might have lowered my expectations going in. I did not like Darko and yet it’s a much better film than this one, if that tells you anything. This has a lot of the same flaws, but at least Darko had a better plot.