People are voting emotionally.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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

I was drawn into this film by the uneasy feeling that the central characters were being drawn into a slow-sucking situational quicksand, an experience that for most of us only happens in nightmares.If you prefer snappy pace and predictability in your films, move on. As the other reviews indicate, you either really like this film, or really dislike it for any number of reasons. At times I wanted to grab the "hero" by the shoulders and give him a shake to snap him out of his apparent lassitude. At that point I realized the movie was working for me, I was invested emotionally. Casting stays refreshingly clear of stereotypes with not a "pretty boy" in sight, and direction, performances and technical credits are mostly right on the mark.This picture would have done so much better at the box office if it had let the potential audience know that Patricia Highsmith was the author of Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train." For those of us not familiar with Highsmith's work, the title "The Cry of the Owl" is just too far removed from the essence of this film to be a draw.So when you have the opportunity to see this film, relax, put your feet up and watch the first ten or so minutes. If you fall asleep, or find your mind turning towards undone kitchen tasks, then get back to "Jersey Shore" or whatever else gives your entertainment rush. If this film passes the ten-minute endurance test, you'll find it evolves into 100 minutes of compelling entertainment, destined to linger in the dark crannies of your mind for longer than you might expect.

WARNING AGAIN....SPOILERS AHEAD: (If you already saw the movie you probably won't care)An incredibly dull man stalks a really dull woman. She likes him and spends time with him talking about stupid death omens, including an Owl . Her boyfriend fights the dull man and disappears. Dull man is then stalked by the an unknown figure, the police, and his ex-wife.There are no explanations for the odd occurrences in this man's life and why they seem to only happen to him.After awhile, I didn't care. He was so darned boring. Oh, he does curse a lot.The dull man is inexplicably and incredibly "unlucky". Everyone around him gets shot, stabbed, or disappears. He looks out the window and hears an Owl.The End.

This film immediately pulled me in with the first scene of driving-through-the-dark-night, unrecognizable glows of light flying by, signs of life in an otherwise black space and arriving at a warm glow in a quaint house and a woman washing dishes. Robert watches her from the safety of dark woods, night after night, although he has a top design job at an aeronautical firm.The people throughout this film are all askew and odd, relating to each other around corners and the strange connection that occurs between Jenny, the woman in the window, and her voyeur Robert is a desperate attempt at something real made by two eccentric individuals marked by depression and solitude. Like all Patricia Highsmith material, life exists on the edge and comfort is not so easily had.I enjoyed the contrast made between the big city, with Robert's malicious ex-wife living amidst its penthouses, and the small town Autumn leaved rurality that Robert has retreated to. Robert makes efforts to keep himself in his bubble but Jenny, upon discovering him, tempts fate and propels herself upon him, breaking up with her boyfriend to do so and thus setting into motion a weblike story of violence, deception, and the inevitable play of loss after loss.I watched this after seeing Julia Stiles on this season's Dexter and I couldn't help but think the producers must have seen her in this, her characters in both being both haunted with pain, yet filled with resolve. Paddy Considine does a great job playing a man who seems to have been run through the washer and dryer a few too many times, both distant and filled with an undercurrent of emotion.I highly recommend this film unless you demand nothing but car chases and narratives that spell everything out for you in the first ten minutes.

I am one of those people who believes that all good scary/thriller movies and books have one thing in common that makes them so scary: They could happen to you.The events that take place in this movie have not happened to anyone, ever. They aren't believable, not in the least. So the film doesn't work as a drama, either, because the entire time, you're distracted, wondering: "WHEN does that happen???" Aside from the outlandish plot, the writing was clumsy. For a long time, I wasn't sure who the protagonist was supposed to be, and when I was sure, I wasn't motivated to care. I was just waiting for the movie to end. And the director, it seems, didn't care, either. Every scene went: Establishing shot, close-up of Paddy, close-up of Julia, splash of red, close-up of Paddy staring at Julia, patch of blue, scene. It didn't help that the actors were walking through their roles, too. They were bland and tasteless, and I'll be polite and leave it at that.Five minutes in I was laughing hysterically and saying, "It's a dark comedy, right? Please tell me it's a dark comedy." If it were a dark comedy, I'd like it a lot better. Point is, it's still boring. Whether it's a drama, thriller, dark comedy, whatever the hell it was originally intended to be--believe me, I have no clue--I was bored out of my skull, and I wanted my money back.