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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Freeze Frame delivers...until the end, September 30, 2005
This review is from: Freeze Frame (DVD)
This is the second surprisingly good new Irish indie film I've seen lately (the first being the zombie flick Dead Meat). Comedic actor Lee Evans is practically unrecognizable in the lead role and really carries this film. The story is Kafka-esque (imagine the paranoia of being wrongly accused of a grisly murder), the filming is nightmarish, and the suspense is maintained until the ending which becomes convoluted, unsatisfying, and...kinda ridiculous. It's a shame, since so much worked so well early on with trying to figure out just what is motivating Evans' paranoia--his guilt or his innocence.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Paranoia, January 23, 2005
This review is from: Freeze Frame (DVD)
This is an impressive feature debut from writer-director John Simpson that overcomes the limitations of a low budget with an imaginative premise and stylish filmmaking. Comedian Lee Evans is quite good in a change-of-pace role as a Sean Veil, a man who was once arrested for the grisly murders of a mother and her two daughters. He was eventually released without a conviction, but was so traumatized by his false arrest that he has since taken to relentlessly videotaping his every move 24 hours a day so that he will have an airtight alibi should the police ever suspect him of another murder.
Of course, he eventually does become the suspect in another murder and discovers to his horror that someone has swiped the exact videos from his vast library that would prove his innocence. The rest of the movie covers his attempts to convince the unsympathetic cops that he is indeed innocent and to find out who is trying to set him up.
Through some slick editing that constantly cuts back and forth between human and videocam point-of-views, the movie establishes a kinetic visual sense that keeps us immersed in the protagonist's obsessively skewed world. While there are some obvious plotholes (how does the protagonist make a living when he's so isolated from the rest of the world?), the movie's premise is so cleverly offbeat and brought to life in such a vivid manner that you can't help but run with it. For the first hour this is an involving and original suspense thriller that keeps us guessing as to where it's headed.
Unfortunately, in the last 15 minutes the movie deteriorates into a talky parade of overwrought plot twists that turns laughable in its desperate attempt to tie up all loose ends just a tad too nicely. A more subtle and less contrived finale might have put this one into the same class as "Memento" or "Pi".
Still, "Freeze Frame" is a sometimes haunting and sometimes poignant vision of extreme paranoia in the modern world. While it doesn't quite get under your skin, it does leave a few marks trying to get there.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
great performance by Evans, November 11, 2005
This review is from: Freeze Frame (DVD)
Sean Veil is the ultimate paranoiac, a man so convinced that everyone is out to get him that he's even begun spying on HIMSELF. However, there is actually a method to his madness, for unlike many paranoiacs, Sean has a valid reason to be fearful and suspicious of those around him. About ten years prior to the time of the story, Sean was falsely arrested for the brutal slaying of a woman and her two young daughters - a crime for which he was eventually acquitted, although the experience has left him emotionally devastated and psychologically damaged. His reputation ruined, Sean has since devised an elaborate system whereby he can videotape himself 24/7, so that he will always have an alibi if someone ever attempts to accuse him again of a crime he didn't commit. Unfortunately, Sean soon discovers that even the latest in modern technology can't guarantee his safety if the forces out to get him can figure out how to beat him at his own game.
This quirky and original Irish film suffers a bit from the constraints of its budget and the amateurishness of some of the performances. Director John Simpson's split screen technique, though intriguing at first, becomes a bit trying after awhile, and the storyline is not always as cleanly and clearly developed as it might be, although the drab, colorless look of the film perfectly reflects the drab, colorless life of its protagonist.
The movie overrides most of its flaws thanks to one element that is the real thing: Lee Evans' searing and uncompromising portrayal of an innocent man driven to the brink of madness by his obsessive need to prove that innocence. With his nervous, soft-spoken demeanor and constant look of terrified submission, Evans makes what could have been a creepy, repulsive character into a thoroughly sympathetic figure. We find ourselves so drawn to his predicament and so involved in his fate that, even at those moments when the movie itself falls flat, we stick with it anyway.
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