Robert J. Maxwell In this confusing mystery thriller, Mark Strong is John Washington, a man capable of entering the memories of others by holding hands with them and processing some inscrutable kind of mystical humbug. Strong is tall man with staring eyes. He never smiles. And he wears a trendy day's growth of hair both on his face and his nearly bald head. For a professional soothsayer he dresses all in black like someone who frequents biker bars. I frankly don't get this style, which is common on the screen these days. Is this how they dress on Rodeo Drive? I ask because I never see anyone dressed like this on the streets. That about ends my sartorial column for the day.He's nearly broke and still mourning his wife but reluctantly takes on the case of a troubled sixteen-year-old girl, Anna, who was expelled from a tony prep school and now lives at home in her parents mansion. She claims to want to get away from all this. There is no cogent explanation provided of exactly why she would want to get away from a life of luxury, but there it is. Her parents, she claims, are keeping her prisoner. Her step father, who may or may not have abused her, wants to send her to an institution where "she can be properly cared for." Is she lying? Is she mentally ill? It's Strong's job to find out by sharing her memories.Anna is played by Taissa Farmiga, Vera's younger sister, whom she only resembles when regarded from certain angles. Her outstanding feature is her paradoxically penetrating and helpless eyes, large and moist and clear. She's also quite attractive in a teen-age way, and looks rather like one of the more popular girls in your high school chemistry class. But hers is the kind of beauty that is fungible and can quickly be exchanged for a thirty-year stretch in San Quentin. All you'd have to do is what any normal man would do, a light touch of that delicate shoulder and, poof, you're doing drawings of the bars of your cage.Her acting ability is hard to judge, unlike Vera's, which is exceptional. Her character is more or less locked into the role. She plays a talented artistic girl, very bright and very savvy, and her lines are delivered with a kind of chop, spoken quickly and in a monotone, as if she'd been born not in New Jersey but in the San Fernando Valley.Given these strictures, she handles the role quite well, and although the contours of her features aren't as engagingly asymmetrical as those of her sister, who, in certain photographs, looks like Venus rising from the sea, it would be interesting to see more of Taissa Farmiga. That's pronounced Far-MEE-gah, by the way, a Ukranian name.I've kind of skipped the plot for the simple reason that I don't understand it.Man -- did this script need some tightening. It appears that when Strong taps into Farmiga's memories of childhood and school, while he's trying to figure out what's wrong with her, her memories come and go in flashes and they can be lies. How can a memory lie? Well, in actual fact, they lie all the time to fit certain narratives we construct for ourselves.No evidence is more powerful in a courtroom than a witness standing up, point at the suspect, and saying, "I saw him do it." Yet, as Elizabeth Loftus and others have amply demonstrated, eyewitness testimonies suck. And if we can unwittingly fabricate memories about others, imagine the parade of fantasies that make up our own image of ourselves, in which we have so much invested.It could have been a fascinating story and in some ways it's well done. At least the director has kept the glitz to a minimum and has handed the camera to someone who doesn't hold it as if he were a spazz. But the writers should be sent to bed without supper and expelled from school.

vincentlynch-moonoi I've seen worse. This isn't too bad.Problem number 1, at least for me, is that I thought it was some sort of a horror movie. Perhaps that's my mistake. Instead it's a psychological thriller.Problem number 2 is that there are no really good acting performances in this film. Everyone does "okay".All this is not to say that the film doesn't have its moments. The concept of a "mind detective" is actually kinda interesting. And, any movie that has a double twist at the end -- neither of which I saw coming -- can't be all bad.But here's the bottom line. If I had it to do over again, I wish I'd not wasted 99 minutes. I would compare this to a moderate t.v. movie.

kosmasp It's always tough for a movie that tries to twist its way into your brain (no pun intended), to be 100 % successful. Still this has the actors to pull things off quite nicely. Mark Strong especially and Brian Cox in a smaller role are able to convey a very crazy idea to the viewer. You could say the idea is "far out".But good science fiction is always bending boundaries. And the tapping into someones mind thing is not really new. There is more on the story that is apparent on the surface of course and there is a running theme, that is too obvious, but maybe a bit too much, if you think about it after watching the movie. Decent effort, but not really great

LeonLouisRicci Not Fully Satisfying, but Interesting Enough Psychological Thriller. It has a Tendency to be too Familiar the way it Presents the Memory Treks. This Sort of Hyper-Editing and Distortions have just been Done So Many Times that the Luster is Gone and Boredom Sets In.The Story Here is Intriguing, but Again a Tad Derivative, as Mark Strong, Playing Against Type as, of All Things, a Sensitive. A Memory Detective. It's the Future and this Kind of PSYOPS, is Used by Law Enforcement. A Sort of Post-Cogs as Opposed to the Pre-Cogs of Minority Report (2002).The Discipline Known as "Remote Viewing" is Once Again Not Fully Understood by these Filmmakers and They Make the Mistake of Throwing the Term Around with Little Insight Concerning What it is or the Way it Works. Thankfully this is Dropped After an Embarrassing Explanation at the Beginning.Taissa Farmiga as the Ultra-Intelligent and Talented Anna is OK, Although Her Line Reading Here is Inconsistent and Seems Quite Amateurish at Times. Brian Cox is Mostly Wasted and His Part is Never that ImportantOverall, there is a bit of a Muddle in the Movie's Plot and the Ending has been Given Much Criticism, but it's a Delicate Twist and Fits the Tone of the Characters and is Ultimately Satisfying and a bit Different Outcome that Usually Results in This Type of Thing.