This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I had already noted a low rating for this movie on various sites but the subject matter appealed to me as a fan of Misery, Play Misty for Me, Misery et al so I gave it a go expecting nothing of any shock value and was not disappointed on that front. This film had elements of all three of the aforementioned films but had too few pearls stretched out on a decidedly threadbare string.Almost immediately the viewer becomes frustrated at the stupidity of Mike and his girlfriend Elizabeth as they take a trip back to his roots where his "intense" - as Mike describes her - ex-girlfriend, Shelby, runs a bowling alley. After meeting some of Mike's friends, Elizabeth decides she wants to follow them on with Mike to the Bowling alley in spite of being informed about the existence of Shelby. After Shelby plies Elizabeth with tequila whilst playing the amiable ex, Elizabeth, keen to make a good first impression on Mike's parents decides she is too drunk to meet with them that night so Mike's police officer brother drives Elizabeth to a remote hotel and Mike back to his folks. This is where the first major flaw of the plot is seen. Would you seriously drop your young girlfriend off in a hotel car park in a strange and remote area without seeing her safely inside and ensuring she has secured a room? Apparently not as she is left to wheel her case in and wave from the door as her chaperones speed off into the night before being told there are in fact no vacancies and the sign that says otherwise is broken. This leaves Elizabeth to walk four miles West in the dark to locate another hotel until she flags down a passing car which promptly knocks her into a ditch.When she awakens, Elizabeth finds herself in a strange bedroom attached to a drip and being "nursed" by Shelby who is intent on hiding the injured girlfriend away whilst she desperately tries to win back the affections of her ex, Mike. It quickly becomes evident that Shelby is a dangerous psychopath and one wonders why the smart Elizabeth didn't just play along with her games and manipulate Shelby by asserting that she wanted to break up with Mike. A girl of her calibre could have easily cooked up some fictitious and feasible story which would have placated Shelby and ensured Elizabeth's relative safety. This is a common flaw in movies of this ilk. The hostage making ill-planned escape attempts, showing the fear that only feeds the hostage-taker or to the contrary, antagonising their captors and sustaining more injuries for their efforts.The characters were hard to care about in any capacity which is so often the case where teenagers are involved. Predicable diatribe in my opinion, lacking every ounce of substance that Misery brought to the screen.

***SPOILERS*** Things aren't all that blissful in the little working and blue collar town of Mt. Bliss when the high school star football running back Matt Long, Mike Donaldson, came back for his long awaited homecoming to have his football jersey #7 permanently retired. Expecting to renew her relationship with the handsome & hulking Matt is his old high school flame Shelby Mercer, Micha Barton, who's in for the surprise of her life in finding that Matt is in love and planning to marry Elizabeth,or Liz, Mitchum, Jessica Stroup! Gtting good and drunk at the homecoming festivities Liz decides to chill out at a local motel before she meets Matt's parents. This decision on her part was to change both her and Shelby's lives forever!On the highway looking for a place to stay for the night Liz is run down by a very disturbed and not watching the road Shelby who realizing her good fortune takes the very banged up Liz home to recuperate! What Shelby really has in mind is to somehow make Liz disappear, by poisoning her, and thus end up having Matt all to herself! The only problem is that Liz is not all that accommodating to Shelby's plans and does everything to escape! Which ends up with Shelby doing her best to off Liz even before the poison,that she's spiking her her medication with, kicks in!With Selby now in control of the situation she plans to trick Matt into thinking that Liz walked out on him but he doesn't fall for her act until he gets positive proof that Liz in fact two timed him. From that point on Shalby starts to lose it in overplaying her hand like getting Matt drunk and try to have it on with him, in a bar ladies room no less, that has him suspect that she in fact had something to do with Liz's sudden disappearance!***SPOILERS*** The film comes down to the big homecoming party where Matt finally realized in a present that Liz gave him, that he thought was Shelby's, that has him bolting in sub-zero weather with nothing but his shirt & tie on to Shelby's place and find out what in fact she did to Liz and if Liz is being kept there against her will. Shelby by now has completely gone off her rocker murdering Matt and her friend Sheriff Billy Fletcher, Michael Landes, for asking too many embarrassing questions and trying to fix the light in her basement where a tied up Liz is being held.Tremendous end of movie cat fight between the badly injured Liz and the crazed and homicidal Shelby as a kneecapped Matt, whom Shelby shot, is helpless to stop and is just a bystander in the whole spectacular event!***MAJOR SPOILER*** typical psycho movie ending that you saw coming from as far as 10 miles away that doesn't surprise you but at the same time take anything away about the what you've seen in the film up until then!

This film is not really even worth a review, so I'll make it quick. The movie starts as a total snoozefest. A slow start, boring script, boring dialogue.We're supposed to believe that Long's and Barton's characters were an item in the recent past. This despite the fact that Long appears to be around 19 years old, while Barton looks to be 6-8 years his senior (which, in real life, she is). Yet we are shown a photo with them frolicking around in high school clothes, with Barton a cheerleader. Wow.Then the clichés start in earnest. Stroup's character is being held hostage, and makes multiple feeble and idiotic non-attempts at escape. No, don't use the front window to ensure that the psycho who is holding you prisoner is actually gone before you try getting away or using the phone to call for help; just wait for her to go downstairs, and hope for the best. There is even the obligatory scene with an outsider who could help... He's right outside, help at last! Yet all Stroup can manage is to feebly tap on the window. No, don't smash it with that big metal rod in your hand and then scream; just stand there like an idiot.That's as far as I made it with this joke of a movie. I can't believe Freeman put his name on this garbage.

When seeing this film, I immediately thought of Kathy Bates' Oscar winning performance in holding James Caan hostage in "Misery."A young freshman accompanying her boyfriend back for a weekend homecoming gets much more than she bargained for when she is held captive by his vicious ex-girlfriend.The movie becomes a cat and mouse affair where the victim frantically tries to get away from her tormentor. Obviously, this is met without success.The ending could have been better. After getting a tremendous thumping from her helmet, when she is rescued by her boyfriend, the film appears to end only to have the demon waking up. Lord knows what else is in store. In addition, our fiend, Shelby, shot the policeman cousin of her lover when he discovered her escapade. Was he shot dead or just wounded? That's never clearly explained.