Jen Here I happened to turn on my TV and this movie was just beginning on Showcase. I like Sam Neill so I decided to get a cup of coffee and watch a few minutes. I ended up sitting through it all.Sam Neill, as 'The Man' made a very charming, slightly twisted but totally delusional character who escorts a very pretty but slightly drunk Melanie, played by actress Rachael Blake, to 'his place' which is a skiff docked in the harbor. She has too much wine to drink and passes out on his boat. When she wakes, they're out to sea. They arrive at a remote uninhabited island where 'the man' has a shabby but chic cabin on a bluff. He fixes her a hot bath, prepares a delicious dinner for her.It gets weird after this. He tells her he loves her, imagines she's someone else, she tries to escape, ends up stabbing him in the side. I thought that would be the end of the weirdness, but it was just the start. The movie held my interest, made me laugh at some of the things Melanie does with 'the man'. It ends on an upbeat note.It's a love story really. We're led to believe it will be a story about kidnapping and being a hostage trying to escape but it's not at all. It's a very decent movie with a great performance by Rachael Blake. I'm surprised I haven't seen her in any movies before or since this one.

Sindre Kaspersen New Zealand screenwriter, producer and director Gaylene Preston's third feature film which she wrote and co-produced, was screened at the 39th Chicago International Film Festival in 2003, was shot on location at the West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand and is a New Zealand production which was produced by New Zealand producer Robin Laing. It tells the story about a middle-aged woman named Melanie who works in the kitchen at a restaurant. One night whilst she is out with her friends at a bar, a mysterious stranger appears out of the blue and after a brief conversation she joins him. He takes Melanie to his boat and the next day she wakes up in a hut on a remote Island by the coast.Distinctly and finely directed by New Zealand filmmaker Gaylene Preston, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a quiet and intriguing portrayal of a remarkably unusual relationship between two strangers. While notable for it's naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, sterling cinematography by New Zealand cinematographer Alun Bollinger and production design by art director and production designer Joe Bleakely, this character-driven, narrative-driven and unsettling mystery about trust depicts a rare study of character and contains a good score by composers David Donaldson, Stephen Roche and Janet Roddick.This at times wickedly humorous and somewhat surreal psychological thriller where a woman whom is looking for a man finds someone who seems to know very much about her, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, colorful characters and the fine acting performances by New Zealand actor Sam Neill and Australian actress Rachael Blake. A romantic, lyrical and fairy-tale-like love-story from the early 21st century which takes an atypical approach in it's examination of relationships between men and women and which gained the award for Best Actress Rachael Blake at the 24th Fantasport International Film Festival in 2004.

JoeytheBrit MAJOR SPOILERS This low budget flick starts off as a straightforward single female in peril thriller before changing tack midway through and heading down the single female goes a bit bonkers path. There's no warning, or apparent reason, for her sudden mental slide, but that's just one of many issues the film's writer and director fail to address. Why any bloke would want to marry a mad chick who whacked him over the head with a shovel and tied him up in a tool shed which she then takes pot shots at while talking to said bloke's dead/imaginary mate who she has recently murdered and thrown in a freezer is way beyond me. I know he lives alone on an island, but even so he can't be that desperate...Although the woman's descent into madness is unaccountably swift, the film plods along, neither knowing or seeming to care where it is going. The woman is never a sympathetic character, and neither her nor Sam Neill (who is considerably less bonkers, but still a little flaky all the same) are given any real back-story, so the viewer is given no reason to care what happens to them.This one's about as satisfying as a knife in the gut after a one-night stand...

maxolander I came in to this movie after the man was wounded. As they were beginning to grow found of one another..I was captivated. Rachael Blake did a wonderful Performance..Sam, was excellent, so handsome Go Sam. Wow. And Rachaels expression is heart warming, as she first noticed Sam at her reception. As she danced gracefully between the two men, it is amazing. and when she dances with Sam the passion flows. The acting was well done by the entire cast. The directing, Bravo....Clearly, she had found a love , that she can not live with out, And he loved her as well., Her mind simply would not allow her to lose such a love.As she had found with The Man.