Name: The Veil (2016)
IMDb: link to The Veil page
Genres: Drama Country of origin: USA.
Cast: Thomas Jane as Jim Jacobs (obvious reference to Jim Jones), Jessica Alba as Maggie Price, Lily Rabe as Sarah Hope, Jack de Sena as Christian (Maggie's brother), Shannon Woodward as Jill.
Directed by: Phil Joanou. Written by: Robert Ben Garant.
The Three Acts:
The initial tableaux:
Jim Jacobs runs a cult camp at Heaven's Veil Ranch, circa 1982. He's a self-appointed mage who does miraculous healing and the like. He does meditation, astral projections, telekinesis, and whatever else will inspire loyalty. His big draw, though, is promising techniques to gain eternal life.
Yeah, right.
The trick is, one has to die first before getting the big dividend. Indeed, every one at Heaven's Veil does die back in 1982, save for Sarah Hope.
Spin forward to the present, roughly. Sarah Hope is recruited by Maggie Price and her brother Christian to do a documentary on the Ranch. Maggie's father was the FBI agent in charge of investigating the Veil, and he ended up hanging himself when Maggie was three years old.
Delineation of conflicts:
As one might expect, things start to go badly soon after the film starts.
The caretaker of Heaven's Veil was not all that welcoming. Film crew member Ed takes the group's van and kills himself by running into a tree at high speed. The group is more than a bit isolated by distance, since they are now all on foot.
Sarah finds the more secret parts of the place, which include multiple films of the inner workings of Jim Jacobs' group. The filmmakers hope to find out what the driving forces were behind the mass death at Heaven's Veil. Does something or someone at the Veil want those secrets kept secret?
Resolution: The film jumped the shark around 53:00 in. The transition from somewhat reasonable thriller to wholesale supernatural bullshit was sudden. The turnabout at the end was well-written, but I had long since quit caring.
One line summary: Fools go where they should not.
Statistics:
Cinematography: 9/10 Early on, the visuals are odd (the palette seems to be composed of mixtures of white, green, brown, and black), but beautifully focused and framed. As the film progresses, black comes to dominate increasingly.
Sound: 8/10 The voices of the actors are clear enough. The music is on the subdued side, which I counted as a plus.
Acting: 5/10 Yikes. The one and only star in the film, Thomas Jane, was in creepy mode which is one of his strengths. Jessica Alba I could have done without; this was one more film ruined by her presence. Lily Rabe was a bit better. The actors who played the film crew did reasonable jobs right up to the places where the screenplay deserted them.
Screenplay: 5/10 The take on everlasting life was entertaining, but the methods of getting there were just ludicrous. Also, in the end, it seemed like merely one more fake possession film.
Final rating: 6/10 Most of the +6 is for Thomas Jane's performance and the cinematography.
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