User Reviews

Riddle commences with an initially interest-grabbing tale - Holly's brother Nathan disappears and not a word is ever discovered about his whereabouts.

We jump forward three years with Nathan still missing, and one day Holly is certain she has seen him, and promptly gives chase.

Here the scriptwriters had an immense opportunity to take the viewer on a roller coaster ride of mystery, suspense, thrills and a touch of horror.

You will want to ask why Holly never mentions Nathan's shoes.....but after overcoming her differences with the school associates she meets in the town of Riddle, she continues her pursuit of Nathan, despite being warned off by the Sheriff (Val Kilmer) and a mystery man (Wllliam Sadlier).

I've never seen a Sheriff with a pony-tail and I was itching to take my scissors to a very unconvincing Val Kilmer's odd hairstyle - it must have been a deal clincher for him to keep the horse's backside on his head in exchange for playing his small part in the film.

Unfortunately, once a prime discovery is made the story appears to have painted itself into a corner, and to me it felt as if the original scriptwriter had quit and was replaced with a 10 year old with budget control.

The end sequences descend into farce, and the riddle of Riddle is never really explained.

It's no surprise why so many films are failures when they betray the cinema-goers trust with this type of dross.

One star for providing young actors and film creators with employment, no stars for Val Kilmer and his wooden horse with tail impersonation.

Elisabeth Harnois stars as a typical 33 year old teenage girl in a small town.

What? Elisabeth Harnois can still pass for 16 after all these years since we drooled over her in 'My Date With The President's Daughter' back in 1998? Yes! She can! And she still looks great! Harnois' mentally handicapped brother... I mean mentally challenged... I mean mentally disabled... I mean differently enabled mentally... I mean special needs... I mean whatever is PC at the moment, is taken for a joyride by two bullies. While stopping for beer at a gas station he disappears.

3 years later (so is Elisabeth Harnois now supposed to be 36?) Harnois spots her brother at a farmers market and follows him to the ghostly town of Riddle which appears to be almost completely abandoned. This is creepy but it's never explained. Just like the rest of this movie.

When she reports her brother's sighting to the local yokel sheriff Val Kilmer, the bar tender, tow truck driver and other locals they all hint at there being a conspiracy within Riddle to cover up her brother's kidnapping.

This plot appears to be going somewhere but it isn't! In no time Harnois unites with other thirty something teenagers and we're left with the slasher formula of teenagers running through the woods from ax wielding maniacs and stepping in bear traps.

Basically NOTHING is ever really explained as to why her brother was kidnapped or even by whom.

There are also several other major logical flaws in this film. For example, when one character is found imprisoned in a barn he has long hair to suggest he hasn't been well treated. How then is he clean shaven? Uncut hair but clean shaven? The film makers could easily have fixed this by simply having the makeup artist add some stubble.

In another scene Harnois just happened upon her brother's manila file showing they were both adopted. Why would his birth file have his adopted last name on it? The film makers could just have easily fixed this by having the adopted parents name on the file instead of the brother's. Sloppy work.

'Riddle' isn't nails on a chalkboard but there is no reason to see it other than to marvel over how great Elisabeth Harnois still looks at age 33.

OK... here we go. I regretted watching the first 15 minutes because it made me watch the whole thing. Nice start, well shot and directed... When someone stops at a gas station and some car just happens to sneak behind it... Im always suspicious... and that blue truck was no different.

Then it is just downhill... no plot whatsoever... the Town gets invaded by all kinds of police force (Val said so) and they just miss the old suspicious compound...

The question mark with the stairs (film poster) has nothing to do with anything. Everything happens so easy... nothing gets explained... characters are poorly developed.

Val (Kilmer) is a joke.

Guys, use the same first 15 minutes and try again, this one is not worth it.

Pros: young actors. Worked well with what they had.

First of all the plot is totally unbelievable by 1/3 of the way through. The plot is very shallow especially with back story and character development. It is very hard to have any sympathy with the undeveloped vapid characters. The acting was very jilted and contrived, especially the role of Val Kilmer. It was as if Val was forced to do a movie for some reason and gave his bare minimum.

I think in this 21st century the idea of the helpless unresourceful female character is outdated. In fact the reactions of all four characters who are hunting for the whereabouts of the missing brother is so overdone in hundreds of "horror" movies before that it is an offensive to the viewer. They follow the very typical method of operation that so many horror, slasher, teenage movie flicks follow. separate and get picked off one by one. then when confronting the bad guy in the movie one of the male characters makes all the wrong mistakes that we come to expect and as easily predicted he dies. What a big shocker there. And the obvious blaring misconception is the cover on the video, a giant question mark with an MC Escher like illustration. At no time did this theme in anyway relate to the film. What could have been a mind bending psychological thriller turned out to be worse than some film student's senior project. I did give it one star because there was a happy ending and one cannot turn down a happy ending.

This movie was such a disappointment.

In the start i was really exited about the plot, 2 fresh mens going to school.

1 of the kids " Nathan" get teased by a bully and spills food over the "Jerks" of the school, therefor a little conflict is starting, but an gym teacher comes between it and makes sure the Jerks get detention.

Afterwards the kid " Nathan" waits for his sister " Holly " and her cheer leading practice.

While Nathan is waiting the Jerks are finished with detention and get the interest of Nathan about talking cars, en go for a ride.

At this point i was really excited, because this could have gone so many ways.

But guess what happens, they play the game "Are u a coward" against a freaking truck, Nathan pisses his self, goes to a gas station and disappear.

After less then a minute searching they decided he disappeared and the movie fast forwarded to 3 years after.

And the movie is done, no story, no explanations. If the goal of the writer was the leave allot of "questions" he sure did a good thing calling the movie Riddle and putting a question mark on the disc cover.

The only link i could get between the name of the movie, was that it happened in a village called " Riddle "

1 Star, because i couldn't give less

When I first read the rather daunting reviews here, I was a little iffy about watching it, but I decided to take the plunge. What I discovered was a little gem--an atmospherically dark, moody, journey that builds in suspense to a rather thrilling climax.

I think the pace was good though perhaps just a wee bit too slow for some. Coming off of another film where the action sequences hit you virtually non-stop roller-coaster fashion, it might even seem sluggish, but to me this was more than offset by the visually attractive elements of the film, some great camera work, and some very worthy acting.

Some have stated that they found the story-line vague, but I didn't at all--if you follow the dialog, it is obvious what is happening, and the end is rather thrilling. I would have preferred that the character of the "disheveled man" (read 'Mad Doctor' and also *secret* someone else in the film) had been better developed, but it seems the writers wanted our lack of knowledge about him through the body of the film to be held as more of a surprise--a part that was both eerily and excellently portrayed by Jack Erdie.

I've always enjoyed Bill Sadler's work--he's another Scotty Glenn in that he's such a flexible, utilitarian actor--though his cameo here was too short.

I think it's now in vogue for people to dis Val Kilmer--he's getting older and fatter--but he lends his weight (seriously--no pun intended) to his part and is at least credible (as always). My only wince during the film was when, after a burst of threatening anger, he suddenly, calmly, admonishes his daughter and her friends for being together, warns them not to do it again, then drives off business-as-usual, when any other Sheriff/father would have been far more aggressive and not so instantly calmed.

The big surprise for me was the excellent work by virtually all the supporting actors--character development was as good as their screen-time allowed, but the actors had both depth and presence in every scene. I think this one fact really made the movie for me. Perhaps it was, in some cases, the dearth of dialog which, a la Alan Parker/Kubric-style, helps to build suspense and add depth. I think they are all responsible, in working with such a script, for delivering a solid movie experience. I simply cannot find fault in any of the acting--all were on beat throughout.

Elisabeth Harnois also gave a credible and professional performance in the lead role--at least as good as other actors with her age and experience--I had no problems at all in believing in her character, or anyone else's in this film. What I thought might be an awkward moment in the scene transition from her brother's disappearance to her crying in the parking lot explained itself away when we recognize her dilemma--'what should she do next'? I think the directors were on queue and were consistent and seemed intent on getting as much from a scene as budget allowed, yet there were no long, wasteful scenes or gratuitous landscape pans often seen in other films of this budget range to 'not waste the camera rental fee'--every scene seemed to transition well, and at an apparent purposefully suspenseful pace. The backdrops in Riddle were fabulously 'decaying middle America' and I found myself wanting to see lots more of them in play.

Lastly, I must say that the film score, while apparently purposefully unobtrusive, was too much so. Many scenes seemed wanting for music that just wasn't there at all. My bailiwick, a better, more sinister-sounding, more energetic and engrossing score would have added so much more depth to the slow-beat pacing of the dialog and many of the scenes.

While many film goers (and reviewers) seem to have embraced a more black & white style of critique of the movies they see (it's either a 'Taxi Driver' or a 'Plan 9'), there is a universe of film in between--and much of it is worthy. Riddle is certainly up there in both effort and craftsmanship, and I hope the cast and crew, the producers, directors and writers, will bring us more and better in the future.

I rate this film as a 7--a good, solid, entertaining movie.

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Not as bad as other reviews suggest - in my POV. The riddle does quite some things right even if it's not a complex riddle so to say. (Spoiler: dad survived and kidnapped his boy) Story is fairly realistic and esp in the beginning able to create suspense. I liked the slow pace and overall unagitated feel. Towards the end it drifts more and more into cliches and implausible decisions which take unfortunately some oomph away. Ps: The twisted staircase on the cover has nothing to do with the actual movie.

I thought the story and acting was pretty good. My major problem with it however was with the two boys who took Nathan for a ride. Considering that they got detention and at least one of them blamed Nathan for their punishment. So they take Nathan, but before that as Holly is in her cheer practice her friend tells her that the boys are with her brother on the bleechers. She looks and says it's alright and continues with her practice. So since she was responsible for her handicapped brother she should have gone over to see what was going on. Her job was to protect her brother.

So they take Nathan for a ride and while stopping at a gas station Nathan goes to the bathroom and when the two boys return Nathan has gone missing. Next it is three years later and Holly is at college. While working at a farmer's market she notices her brother's sneakers and follows the lead to the town of Riddle.

She bumps into her old high school friend Amber whose father is Riddle's sheriff. Anyway to cut a long story short I found it a) incomprehensible that the boys did not get punished for Nathan's disappearance, or at least it seems that way, and b) how easily Holly let's Amber and the two same boys team up to search for her brother. After all it was their fault in the first place that her brother went missing.

The rest of the movie and the story was pretty good, but for the reasons that I said the movie was ruined. Just to add an interesting point Elizabeth Harnois was 34 years old in the movie playing a teenager, and Diora Baird was 29 playing a teenager.