Rent The Cry of the Owl (2009)

Psychological thriller that misses the target - The Cry of the Owl review by RP

Paddy Considine is one of my favourite actors but this is one film of his that I hadn't seen. Certainly it never passed my local cinema - perhaps (unjustly) it went straight to DVD?

It's based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith and the reference to the owl is as a harbinger of doom. That sounds very pretentious, and the film does suffer somewhat from a sense of its own importance.

The story is one of stalking in reverse. Robert Forrester (Paddy Considine) works for an aerospace company, but after a bitter divorce becomes obsessed with Jenny Thierolf (Julia Stiles) and spies on her. Strangely, she invites him into her house, then breaks off her engagement and starts to stalk Robert, who distances himself from her. There is a fight between Robert and the ex-fiance, the ex is left on a riverbank but disappears, and Robert becomes a murder suspect. Things go from bad to worse and Jenny ends up killed. Perhaps Robert really is a harbinger of doom?

It sets out to be a psychological thriller - but misses the target. There aren't any thrills, what psychology there is is bogus, and there isn't really much drama either. So it must be pretty bad then? Well, I rather liked it - but it could have been so much better. And I think that falls to the choice of actors. There just isn't any chemistry between Paddy Considine and Julia Stiles [Aside: they both appeared in 'The Bourne Ultimatum', but not together] and frankly Paddy doesn't have the looks for this part.

I'll give it 3/5 stars - I enjoyed it, but it's fairly average stuff.

Fait Accompli (spoiler) - The Cry of the Owl review by Steve

Not the best of Patricia Highsmith on the big screen, but this BBC co-production captures the psychology of her novels unusually well: with the true nature of an alarming sociopathic outsider obscured by a bland exterior. And the innocent- if flawed- bystander dragged under by an inexorable vortex of dumb bad luck/fate.

It's a loose adaptation which loses its way, but for over an hour this is genuinely strange, especially the eccentric, intermittent romance between a sad washout and a volatile, emotionally insecure loose cannon... who are both poignantly alone. He is recovering from mental breakdown while being divorced by a vindictive wife,

All this is raised well above the level of a TVM by the lead performances. So that's Paddy Considine as the diffident stalker who obsesses on Julia Stiles as an oasis of normality in his void of disappointment; except she turns out to be even crazier than he is. Okay, this has now become a familiar plot riff, but still makes a reliable hook... 

Besides, the cruel wife is the real freak... Writer-directer Jamie Thraves creates more neo-noir melancholy than actual suspense but the stars make the ambient hysteria quite immersive. Plus there are decent small town Canadian locations. This should interest Highsmith buffs or anyone in need of outré late night melodrama.