I have been a long-time devoted fan of good thriller movies. Even as a child, I would sneak in the hallway late at night and watch the movies that my mother deemed too scary or deep for a child to follow. Being extremely lucky, I was blessed with a mother who had a love for Alfred Hitchcock and a good psychological thriller that couldn’t be missed in the house.
Director Richard Gabai’s latest movie, “In/Sight,” is a wonderful trip to the great films of yesterday. The kind of films that should be set aside — in a world of “let’s do everything 3-D, to make it more ‘entertaining'” — for future filmmakers to study and realize that sometimes the subtle creeps into your psyche when you think you’re just sitting there, and sneaks in a twist you never saw coming.
Before it started, I sat there thinking it should be a decent film. It has a great cast and even on bad days this cast would still pull in an interesting show. But it didn’t just deliver a decent film; it delivered a spine tingling, absorbing and thinking film on many different levels.
As it opens in emergency room scene, the staff is trying to save a patient named Alison. As Kaitlyn (Natalie Zea) tries to make out what Alison is saying, she gets accidentally shocked. The drama starts from there and as she tries to make sense of the visions she starts to have, she runs into the lead detective, Peter Rafferty (Sean Patrick Flanery). At first, Rafferty thinks she is a little off her game, but as some of her visions start to check out, he starts to believe her and finds himself drawn to her.
As I sat there, I found the story unfurling in front of me to be intriguing and the secondary love story done tastefully and well done. What I didn’t realize was underneath it all writers Aaron Ginsburg and Wade McIntyre had snuck in a deeper storyline that popped up and through a few curves to what I thought for sure I had figured out. Nicely done, indeed.
Flanery does a wonderful job as a tired cop who gets tossed another case with witnesses who don’t want to “see” anything. Even when he meets someone who he could care about, he gets thrown a curve ball. I felt bad for Det. Rafferty; he seemed worn out and his partner was a tad on the eccentric side and he seemed to be fighting the good fight alone. Flanery plays the emotional roller coaster of Det. Rafferty with intensity and the dedication he brings to all his roles.
Zea expresses a wide range of emotions and various stages of adrenaline-paced scenes without a flaw. She takes you on a believable ride of “seeing through someone else’s eyes and experiences” and I found myself right along with her.
The rest of the cast put in performances that complement the feel of the story line. Adam Baldwin always excels at playing that character who you never know whether you should trust or not. Christopher Lloyd provides just the right touch of eerie creepiness as the neighbor who sees, but by choice of not getting involved, doesn’t see. And Veronica Cartwright wins your heart as Kaitlyn’s sick mother who guides her daughter as best as she can.
Without giving away too much of the movie — this is too good of a ride for someone to tell you the curves — I will say that I enjoyed everything about the film. Everything from the movie’s shots, there are subtle clues in them, to the music, to the general feel of the atmosphere in which our characters live.
I have missed the films that make me sit back and enjoy the film and lure me into a false sense of, “I got it figured out” and then hit me with a twist.
“In/Sight” comes to limited theatres Sept. 2. If you don’t have it around where you live, do yourself a favor and call your movie theatre and tell them you want a spine-tingling thriller with no cheesy special effects. Tell them you want “In/Sight.”
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Follow Lynn Tackitt on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pvtgiggles.
I can’t wait to see this!