20131127: Thriller Review--Love Sick Love

Love Sick Love

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2012, 82 minutes, rated R, thriller.
2. IMDB: 4.5/10.0 from 261 audience ratings.  Aspect: 1.78  Spoken word is in English.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: x% on the meter; y% liked it from z audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.0/5.0 from 47,554 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Christian Charles.  Written by: Ryan Oxford.
6. Starring: Katya Winter as Dori, Matthew Settle as Norman, Jim Gaffigan as Andrew Blythe, Lindsey Rose Binder as Dolly, Dean Kapica as Albert, M. Emmet Walsh as Ed (Dori's grandfather), Charlotte Rae as Grandma.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Norman is a busy, successful real estate agent who is deeply interested in making money, no matter how much time it takes.  He likes his girl friends, but tends to cycle them, a new one every so many weeks.  Dori, however, gets him to go on a long weekend early enough in the relationship that he decides to go.


2. Dori has surprises from the beginning.  She goes through the 'I love you' dance a bit early.  The next morning, Dori introduces Albert and Dolly, her son and daughter.  Then she introduces her grandfather and grandmother as well.  Norman is by no means ready or willing for this to happen.


3. Norman attempts to leave, but Dori has sawed off the steering wheel on his Porsche.  This is where he needed to do anything he could to leave.  He comes close to it, but his cell phone reception is poor.  Dori slams him over the head with an iron, then ties him down to a bed.  The kids are on with it, as are grandpa and grandma.


4. The festive tortures that the kidnappers put Norman through are both ordinary and disgusting.  They celebrate all sorts of holidays during the long weekend: Valentine's Day, Easter, Father's Day.  They tie him up with duct tape, chain his legs together, then make fun of him when he cannot hold his bladder after a long time.


5. Norman does his best to leave, but the ball and chains make it difficult.  They talk, and talk, and talk.


6. Norman does get free, locks Dori away, then starts to run away.  Dori suckers him in by yelling that Dolly had trouble breathing.  This was an horrid moment, when Norman's small piece of compassion is leveraged by this family of psychos.  They re-capture him, then subject him to Christmas carols while dressed for Halloween.


7. Norman knows he's in trouble when the New Year's celebration involves voting, rather like the voting in an elimination derby, such as Survivor.  Is there any way out for Norman?


3. Conclusions
1. A bit too much of the PC bovine scatology.  Dori sounds oh, so calm and clear and philosophical as she drags Norman's body into the shed.  This is one of the harshest crushings of the human spirit I have seen in quite a while.  This is horror at its purest, not a thriller, as billed.  'I still believe in love,' says the kidnapping multiple murderess at the end.  A much better ending would be that Norman escapes when he had the chance, comes back with police, and the four kidnappers are killed in a hail of bullets.  That would have been a thriller, as opposed to this embrace of murderous madness.


2. One line summary: Self-involved real estate agent encounters psycho girlfriend and her family.


3. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10  Well done.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.


3. Acting: 8/10 I liked the performances of the veteran actors.  The child actors did well in their roles.


4. Screenplay: 7/10 Story makes sense in a sick sort of way.