Best movie of this year hands down!

Good concept, poorly executed.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

As this movie was all lead-up and no end, I'll aim to restore the cosmic balance by making this review essentially all end with no real lead-up. NOTE: this review is, in it's entirety, nothing but one big spoiler.The ending: I have no problem with the ambiguity of never truly knowing whether or not everything was in the main character's mind. Almost any story well-told involving an ambiguous ending is essentially a story that's relating a tale about a situation in which "no one was certain about which was true, thus, it remained somewhat of a mystery." It's interesting to present situations about individuals or perhaps societies involved being conflicted over the nature of truth or of their reality. (I give a pass to "The Sopranos" which was a story about "the nature of these people" thus an event-oriented conclusion being arguably less of the point. And I stress "arguably.")HOWEVER... being unclear about whether or not the final scene was actually portraying Tim Daly's character as dead versus in an unconscious haze is just plain sloppy film-making. It's not like part of the mystery was that no one in the story's scenario would ever know if the stair fall killed him or not. Either he was still alive and thus interacted with people at some point after the fall, or his body was found and a funeral was held. Just leaving that part unclear merely leaves the audience in the dark over the actual context of what the final scene was even referring to, something that would've been mundanely clear to everyone within the context of the story itself. Again, either they had a funeral for him after his body was found or they simply talked to him the next day at work. In lieu of this clarification, the film is essentially saying, "And after he fell down the stairs, it would forever remain a mystery from that day forward to all those he knew as to whether he died in the fall, or in fact, survived and saw many of them at work the next day." Clearly, this makes no sense within any context of telling a story. Thus, the presentation of this film isn't a case of telling a story with an ambiguous, mysterious finale. This is simply a case of starting to tell a story without bothering to fully go through the process of telling it. Why bother then? Either finish the assignment or spare wasting our time and don't turn it in. An even bigger shame since the premise was engaging and the acting very good.

Tim Daly stars as successful lawyer Bryan Becket, a very vocal non believer who doesn't adhere to any sort of religious philosophy, psychiatry, supernatural, or psychic phenomena(it also includes astrology and the belief in the Loch Ness monster). In short, Becket doesn't believe in anything other than what the senses tell us. This all changes, though, when he starts staying in his dead aunt's house, and the specter of a woman starts appearing(and whispering)to him.Tom Arnold is Daly's partner at their firm, Sully, often the butt of many jokes because he's the polar opposite of Becket..in short, he believes almost in everything. Estranged from a very good wife, Robin(Andrea Roth) who loves him and has tolerated a lot of unnecessary stress thanks to her "unemotional" husband, Becket uses his time(it's a good enough excuse)at the other house in an attempt to prepare for a big case coming up. But, the woman that keeps popping up distracts Becket from the task at hand. Becket has a lot of childhood baggage that he has kept buried from when he was five years old regarding his mother's death(she fell down a flight of steps down a stairwell), which could relate to what is currently "haunting" him. Robert Prosky is Father Wymond, the Priest of his aunt's Catholic church(she wasn't exactly a devout Catholic, though), and a good friend to atheist Becket who, while frowning upon religion of any kind, often enjoys chatting with him despite their differences. Edward Herrmann is Dr. Shepard, a shrink who worked with Becket when he was a kid and maybe knows more about Bryan's past than he is admitting. The sexy Zoe Saldana( pre-Star Trek stardom)has a supporting role as a psychic, Cassie, who helps Becket address the missing bits of his past, confronting those horrible memories that begin to surface. Bruce Altman is Dr. Warren Koven, a "sleep specialist" whose institute was actually listed on Becket's aunt's will to inherit the house Bryan covets..Becket goes to Koven, who doesn't believe in the supernatural, but applies science to the unexplained, in need of advice regarding what he is experiencing in the house.It was supposed to be a simple stay for a little while, sell off the valuable antiques and other properties, then the house itself, but, instead, Becket encounters far more than he could've imagined. We learn than Becket has been suffering sleep deprivation, not to mention, night terrors, reliving past memories without knowing it(Robin informs Bryan of this fact that he talks in his sleep, awakening in horror at the abuse from his mother). Solid cast in this ghost story where someone who has been shaped by the experiences of his past, must come face to face with that monster that has never truly left him. The ending, to me, is rather startling in how it concludes the "relationship" between mother and son. It seems that Becket is being tormented by his mom out of some sort of revenge for something he might've done, as if what she did to him as a child wasn't enough. Yet, the final reel actually goes in a completely different direction, and we see that mother had other plans all along.

Just saw this last night and really liked it for the following reason(s):A good, smart thriller that does not feel it needs to hit you over the head to make its points. The creaking noises, the visions that you don't know if are real or a product of this guy's imagination (hey, he had a history of psychiatric treatment). I loved the characters, especially Tim Daily's Brian and Zoe Saldana's Cassie. They are not perfect or good, or even necessarily provoke much sympathy in the viewer, until the movie develops and you peel many layers.Part of my favorite dialog, which again, I think illustrates a wealth of hidden information (paraphrasing):(her father has died in the somewhat recent past) -...so you weren't close with your dad? -Not in a good way.Nothing more is said about this, but you can see the quiet shock in Brian's face when he understand the meaning.I also enjoyed that this is a movie I could watch again and again because it doesn't rely on shock value to scare the viewer, its creepiness has a good effect on me every time. Oh, and the scene with the doll, hahahaha!

Hmmm... that should get a lot of "not helpful" votes, as all "-est of all time" comments are bound to get.Okay, too, that you say this isn't a horror film. I accept that. As far as makeup, effects, and gore go, this is on the extremely tame end of the horror spectrum, if it can even be said to fit the genre. Nevertheless, it is very scary. What do you call a really scary movie that doesn't scare you using any methods that fit the definition of "horrific", like blood etc? You got me.The true test of movie scariness, as far as I'm concerned, is how often during the viewing you feel compelled to look behind you, you know, to make sure nothing's there creeping up on you. That's it. Jumping out of your skin is of course another time-tested gauge of scariness, but movie makers now have a formula for making the audience do that whenever they want, so it's really lost most of its cache.Whatever you want to call it, this movie scared the bejesus out of me. This is a high-quality film with great acting, writing, directing, etc. The ending was also great. This movie scares you using story, subtlety, and a steady buildup that's just delicious every step of the way. Without spoiling anything, I'd just like to say that my favorite scene is when they find the doll. Tim Daly's reaction is Oscar-worthy. It's a shame this movie didn't get a proper wide release. The only thing that bothered me was that it sounded like Tom Arnold had a cold for most of his scenes. After searching the internet I've concluded that I'm the only one who noticed this.