Reviews

I completely disagree with the comment made by the person from UAE. I'm not generally a fan of the horror/thriller genre, but since this a French film, I was willing to give it a shot. It far exceeded my expectations. I'm not going to say anything about the film's plot, because this is one of those movies to see when you don't know anything about it. I'm just going to say that a smart, small distributor should pick this movie up for distribution here in the U.S. I would suggest a title change for the U.S. from the unfortunate "Melody's Smile." Why not use the literal translation from the original French title, which is "The Room of the Dead"? The audience I saw this with in Los Angeles at COL-COA this week was very enthusiastic. This movie is so much better than the by-the-numbers horror thrillers that so many U.S. movie makers crank out. This movie is genuinely creepy and scary.

OK, I'm likely to be in the minority here, but I just came home from a screening tonight, and I really disliked this movie. The main reason is Daniel Day Lewis's completely unspontaneous performance - every look, every gesture, every over-enunciated word maddened me. It is the complete opposite of what good acting should be. Sometimes an over-the-top performance can be appropriate, but Mr. Day Lewis's acting style here was pitifully ill-conceived. And what kind of accent was he trying for? It was not an American accent I've ever heard before, most particularly not for a character that was supposed to be from Wisconsin.

And the music score!! Completely inappropriate for the time and place of the story. The lead performance and the annoying music score made me almost want to run out of the theatre screaming, but I will admit that there were some redeeming qualities; the cinematography, production design, and costumes were excellent.