Customer Reviews

Water's Edge

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this movie for one reason: to view more of Nathan Fillion's work. I was impressed with his work on Firefly and Serenity, (impeccable comedic timing) as well as his turn as Caleb in season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I thought I'd check out what I could of what is, quite unfortunately, his short filmography.
Water's Edge started out interesting enough; the back-story of the drowned daughter was at first compelling, as well as the wife's depression, but that got lost once the action ensued. The plot was unoriginal and full of holes. The script itself was seriously lacking in depth. The dialogue was unoriginal. It wasn't hard to see where the film was headed and throughout the viewing I felt that I'd seen it all before, albeit with different actors and a different title.
Daniel Baldwin managed to prove that he was somehow overlooked when they passed out the talent in his family. He was so stereo-typically villainous, I half expected him to start twirling his mustache... and don't miss his Evil Laugh at the end of the movie. Same thing with the Sheriff... so very villainous, my friend and I busted out laughing when he died... perhaps the funniest death-scene ever! Other inappropriate laughter broke out when Emmanuelle Vaugier finally opened her mouth to speak. I don't know if it was the wooden dialogue, or just bad acting (I'm leaning towards the latter), but that scene where Rae is sitting on the couch just after she wakes up... "No! No!" The inflection of each line was exactly the same and it sounded so ridiculous, I couldn't help but laugh! Chandra West's performance was marginally better than Vaugier's, but it too felt slightly wooden and contrived. West's only scene that I took notice of was the one where Molly tells Rae about cutting her hair and how their daughter used to wind Molly's hair around her fingers.
The one saving grace of this film was Nathan Fillion himself. We would have turned the movie off after the first half hour, if not for him. It's a shame that Fillion's time and talent was wasted on such a god-awful film, but it's a credit to him that he gave a genuine and earnest performance in spite of a bad script, sub-par direction, and embarrassingly bad actors. He managed to give poorly written dialogue a great measure of depth. Poor Mr. Fillion. Sometimes you just have to pay the rent, I guess. I would have given the flick 2 stars, except that the Captain is awesome and he deserves a big ol' star just for himself. Rock on, Fillion, rock on.

Robert (Nathan Fillion) and Molly Graves (Chandra West) are trying to keep it together after the death of their young daughter. He is a writing who is now unable to write anything, and so the couple end up at his late father's cabin in the small rural community of Reedsville. Molly is haunted by a terrible dream and is doing a bit more than contemplating suicide. Finding that Molly has loaded his father's old shotgun, Robert takes the gun and run out of the hunting cabin into the woods. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but in the woods he stumbles across a strange scene: A sheriff has dragged a handcuffed young woman out of his cop car in the middle of the forest and is about to kill her. Robert intervenes, which means he and Molly are suddenly up to their necks in the cesspool of small town corruption.

Robert has saved the life of Rae Baines (Emmanuelle Vaugier), and of course he wants to know why the sheriff was about to bash her head in with a rock. An explanation is not forthcoming, and Robert's suspicions are aroused when he discovers $200,000 and some lewd photographs of Rae in the sheriff's car. Clearly there is something rotten going on in Reedsville and since they are in the middle of nowhere, Robert has nobody he can trust. This actually works out because apparently nobody in Reedsville is trustworthy, from Mayor Block (Daniel Baldwin) on down. But Robert and Molly are in way over their heads. At least their martial problems no longer seem that that important.

Obviously the main attraction for this 2003 direct to DVD movie is Nathan Fillion, who has a legion of fans because of his starring role on Joss Whedon's "Firefly," which translated into the theatrical film "Serenity." But unless you harbor dreams that he is going to show up on your doorstep and propose to you out of a clear blue sky, this is clearly a rental. Fillion and West both provide fine performances, but Vaugier cannot carry off the shifts required to keep stirring up the plot in this one. Fortunately, the rest of the characters keep things fairly low-keyed, so things never descend into caricature, but the initial set up slowly descends into fairly standard action, including a gunfight where people are shooting in and out of a house without bothering to use the windows. Except for a handful of trailers there are no special features on this DVD, which just reinforces that "Water's Edge" is essentially a curiosity for Fillion's fans.

I bought this disc because I was interested in seeing Nathan Fillion in a different role than his FIREFLY/SERENITY Captain Reynolds. I assumed it was going to be one of those cliche ridden B movies that are easily forgotten. Wrong. This was an excellent "non cliche ridden" movie that should have had a larger audience. All the actors were well cast, and the acting level was as good as most A movies - and the writing was well above average - all in all a disc worth purchasing.

A couple moved to a cabin to get away from their problems, the husband is a writer trying to get back into the flow he went out into the woods was being a good sumaritan but of course no good deed goes unpunish because after saving the woman who was about to be kill all kinds of mess started going on and the whole town is corrupt. It was ok not good just ok.

Hollywood makes many movies that copy plots in other movies with small differences. This is a case in point. We have the married couple who are near break up after the death of a child. We have them go to a secluded spot hoping to rekindle their marriage. We have them stumble upon a crime and become involved. We have them misunderstanding what they see. However, there is suspense in the movie. Who are the good guys in the town?

WATER'S EDGE is one of those films where you just can't believe how stupid people can be. In this case, it's the hero (well played by Nathan Fillion), who stumbled upon an attempted murder by a local sheriff, who then kills the sheriff, rescues the girl, and disposes of the sheriff and his car in the local river. Fillion also finds a lot of cash in the car, and some revealing pictures of the town's illustrious mayor (Daniel Baldwin). Things with the girl aren't quite what they seem, and before you know it, Fillion and his wife (Chandra West) find themselves in the middle of some messy coverup. A subplot reveals Fillion and West are now broke, due to the expenses incurred when their young daughter drowned, and life support was used to try and spare her life. The performances are credible, but Fillion's actions so unbelievable that it keeps the movie from achieving anything more than a standard thriller.

I stumbled across this movie and had just seen Fillion in Waitress. I enjoyed his acting for the second time. His stiff 'professional man in love' act was great in Waitress and his 'average man with moral compass and responsibility to his fellow man' act was right on target in this movie Waters Edge as well. I like watching an actor who can be an every man in many different stories. The story kept me intrigued enough to be entertained and I do hope to see Fillion make it big as he ages.

**SPOILER ALERT**

This was truly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The dialogue was beyond bad - it was absolute cliche, not believable at all, and often outright laughable. I'm not sure which was worse: the characters or the plot they snooze-walked through. Nathan Fillion (who was the draw for me - like others I was a fan of his from Firefly, Serenity, and Buffy) was the only positive, and even he seemed embarassed by some of the lines he had to speak. I kept laughing at how often he instructed his wife to pack clothes after he had killed the sheriff. Like, you've murdered someone, hopefully for the first time in your life, and your main concern is whether or not your favorite khakis get left behind??

Emanuelle Vaugier is absolutely terrible. I realize she's playing a duplicitous role, but she doesn't give a single authentic expression, action, or line of dialogue. She goes from abused victim to skinny-dipping seductress within a five minute timespan (perhaps this is the appeal for some of the other reviewers?). Her "acting" was some of the worst I've seen in awhile...

Unless you're a genuine masochist or a SERIOUS Fillion fan, avoid this movie. It'll make you laugh and cry, but for all the wrong reasons...

I purchased this DVD for one reason. CHANDRA WEST. I have a knack for noticing future talent. Long before everybody knew who Naomi Watts was, I was a huge fan. Long before everybody knew who Kate Beckinsale was, I was a fan.

The same goes for Chandra (Puppet Master 4&5, Night Terrors, Something More & The Salton Sea). As of today, her most noteable movie was The Salton Sea, and in that, she had a tiny tiny role, delegated only to FLASHBACKS!!

Finally, in WATER'S EDGE, she gets a starring role and shows how good of an actress she can be and has always been. In Water's Edge, she has some very meaty and dramatic moments. Most noteably, a very gut churning scene that involves a shotgun and a firepoker.

Okay... enough about Chandra... now, what I thought about the movie.

WATER'S EDGE starts out quietly when our main characters Robert (Nathan Fillion) and Molly (Chandra West) move to a quiet little town into a very modest log cabin, because they need a change of pace, to get away from the memory of their daughters drowning death, to write a book and they're broke.

We quickly learn that all's not kosher in this family. Depression plagues Molly and their relationship is hanging on by a very thin emotional thread.

That being said, I won't give away anything else, but I will say that the movie starts off EXCELLENTLY. Things start to happen and you don't see them coming. The events are unique, challenging and pose a very very good premise or dilemma for our characters to deal with.

Our characters find themselves in a very unexpected, complex, dangerous and deadly situation. Not to mention, their harboring a young seductive girl named Rae (Emmanuelle Vaugier) from the same dangers.

Everything builds as any good movie would. The tension is good. The dilemma our characters face is complex and intelligent enough to lock you in, and all of a sudden the movie sort of becomes... typical.

What could have been a really really good LOW BUDGET movie, just becomes another movie because at the halfway point, the movie stopped growing, the story lost its creativity and ended the same way most movies of this sort end.

So, the movie only gets 3 stars (could have been 4 stars had it finished the way it started).... ahh... you know... the casting Director did have the keen insight of casting Chandra West in a leading role. I guess I'll throw that extra star back in for the Chandra factor.