Irresistible (2006)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Fantastic!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

***Contains Spoiler****My husband got this movie from our local library, and I had no idea what it was about before watching it. I didn't even read the descriptions on the DVD case. I enjoyed the movie a lot so I was surprised to find the number of negative reviews on IMDb afterward.This movie kept you guessing what is really happening and guessing the motives of each key player, all the way to the end. There are several interpretations I saw in the discussion forum, posted over the years. After reading them I came to feel that most viewers don't understand the complexity of childhood scars, of abandonment issues, and mental health in general, in order to truly appreciate this film and such stories.I find Mara cold-blooded, chilling, and calculating, but then I see that it is only proportional to the cruelty she had to endure from her childhood, revealed in the scene in the hospital. Her genuine love for her friend Kate made me not believe she had killed her, but wanting a revenge on Kate's mother Sophie for rejecting Kate, which led to her death. Imagine how you'd feel as an orphan to see that the mother is featured in magazines as 'supermom'? What hypocrisy! All the appearance of success and perfect mom contrasts sharply with what she knows, that she had not acknowledged an abandoned baby and just went on happily with her life as if it never happened. While some people think the movie should conclude when the two made up, when Sophie said she's Mara's mother and comforted her and that reconciliation saves the day, well, I'm glad it didn't end there. If it did, it'd not have the depth and complexity that made this film above cliché and predictably forgettable. While open to debate what is the right thing to do with unwanted pregnancies, I have met children who are suicidal and never felt worthy of love due to abandonment from their parents, especially their mothers. It is not always a blessing to be born just to be born. The twist at the end showing that Kate is Sophie's daughter, not Mara. I wonder why Sophie didn't ask the hospital for a DNA test to be sure. Perhaps out of guilt, she had to give in and apologize and try to make amends. Mara never claimed Sophie is her mother, Sophie did. I think Mara find it irresistible to the idea to have a mother, as her mother had already rejected her, so she went along with it. So instead of killing Sophie to avenge her best friend Kate, she will have Sophie as her mother.As for Sophie's husband Craig, who appeared to be a supportive husband turns out to be a rather typical male that has a weakness for beautiful young women and can't resist temptations. I thought he was crazy to have Mara over his house while he had Sophie away, but then no, he was not crazy, he was just making things convenient for himself, and of course, he always has excuses. What kind of husband sides with the woman that had his wife on a restraining order and invite her to his house? And asked her to pick up his children? It's as if Sophie was replaced and he's pretty dame happy helping along! This made me wonder if Sophie's father has something to do with why she married a man like Craig. Her father was the one that made her give up her first baby and moved to Australia, the shame made her keeping it a secret that she never told anyone. The open-ended ending makes me look forward to seeing a sequel. Will Sophie find out Mara is not her daughter? Will Craig confess again what he did with Mara? Will Mara succeed in cutting out Sophie's two young daughters? Will forgiveness be complete? Can trust be re-build? Can childhood scars be healed? Can innocence survive?

...basically because it had Lifetime written all over it. I grant you I was surprised to see Susan Sarandon and Sam Neill in a TV movie, but this was no feature film. Susan Sarandon worked with the writer for six months so that the script met her specifications? Maybe she should have worked with her for a year.Sarandon plays Sophie Hartley, a talented and successful illustrator of children's books. Her husband (Neill) is a successful architect. They have two daughters and, because of her husband's job, they live in Australia now.Sophie has just lost her mother and is taking it very hard. Her husband convinces her to buy a new dress and attend a party with him. There she meets an office associate of his, Mara, a beautiful young woman who is wearing the identical dress. She is extremely happy to meet Sophie and since the party is at her house, she changes her dress. The two spend a night talking, Sophie being a little intoxicated.As time goes on, strange things begin to happen in the Hartley household. A neighbor tells Sophie that she saw someone going into her house wearing her beautiful dress what has hibiscus on it. Sophie's hibiscus dress is missing. Then she sees that Mara is wearing the same one when she visits her. Then, a gift that Mara helped her husband bring home for Sophie's birthday has a wasp nest that attacks Sophie and puts her in the hospital.Sophie becomes convinced that Mara is breaking into the house and going through it, which her husband doesn't think is happening. Sophie follows Mara one day and enters her house, where Mara catches her. Everyone thinks she's crazy. She slaps Sophie with a restraining order. Sophie doesn't pay any attention to it and keeps following her.I had this thing figured out within about ten minutes.In the film it's revealed that Sophie was 18 in 1975. I doubt it since Sarandon is only a few years older than I am, and I remember her very well as an ingénue.Good actors wasted, and the ending wasn't satisfying.

The other reviewer who bemoaned the inability to vote -0- was being kind. I wish there were negative numbers. I can't say enough unkind things about this movie and its bovine star. Sam Neill is attractive enough but miscast and then some. Emily Blount is very pretty. Susan Sarandown (pun intended) is not very pretty and, as usual, beyond boring to watch unless you are a guy hoping for a peek at the famous rack but at this point, age has not burnished her always limited charm and the rack has probably been enhanced rather than permitted to move south with the rest of her "charms." I admit that, after the first few benighted minutes, the reason I watched was to see if it could get worse and it did. I watched the rest only to be able to review because I think one should not review any movie without watching it. In any event, the best advice that I can offer is AVOID this mess and be very careful that you don't accidentally step in it.

I watched this low budget Australian movie just because of Emily Blunt but in the end it turned out to be a great film. Blunt, Neill and Sarandon all play their roles excellently and it's a shame that this movie is not available for wider audience. Unpredictable plot without cheap Hollywood tricks and scenes makes this film a hidden gem. All actors do they work really well and you can't just shut down in the end, because it's so surprising. This thriller is really thrilling and doesn't use any of clichés which are so common for this genre. Instead of it Irresistible uses original approaches and is full of beautiful images and realistic behavior of main characters. It's certainly worth-seeing.