Hide Away (2011)

Overrated

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

It's a quiet movie. The motor on a sailboat is called an iron genny not an iron spinnaker as Lucas refers to it in the movie. Genny comes from the word genoa which is a sail, like a jib, only it's leach extends aft of the mast. Also, no sailor spins the dock lines in a spiral like Lucas does. That's a stupid habit of power boaters. Anyway, I watched because I like sailing. Not much to glean about sailing though from this movie. The point of the moving has nothing to do with sailing. I liked it though because Lucas was trying to find the answers at the bottom of the bottle. I can appreciate that. If I were to sink into a depression and come to grips with loss I'd make sure it was in a warm place. The Great Lakes are not a recommendation for a long sulking and healing.

We were attracted to this movie because it has Josh Lucas, an actor we enjoy and can be depended upon to create an interesting character. And he does that here, his performance makes the movie worth watching.However not every movie fan will enjoy it. The story is revealed only very gradually, we see him and his wife and two children in a sort of hazy shot, and we figure out that they have disappeared but we don't know why or how. Viewers who stick with it can enjoy a nice drama about a lost man attempting to find his way.Josh Lucas is only known as Young Mariner. He is a valuable businessman who shows up at the small Lake Michigan harbor having just bought a sailboat. "As is." And he soon finds out that it is in very rough condition, very dirty, water in the bottom, no bilge pump, the engine won't start, the sails are in bad need of repair. He seems determined to work through it, the seasons pass, he gets to know some of the locals. Ayelet Zurer has a key role as The Waitress , and also veteran James Cromwell with a key role as The Ancient Mariner , who also has a sail-making shop. At one point the two men are in a small boat, the older man tells the history of that part of the lake, naming a section the "grand traverse", and a comment that life is like that. It is all a "grand traverse" and that seems to be the overall theme of the story.SPOILERS: The man had been having an extramarital affair and we see his wife and children getting into a car and driving away, then shortly being hit by a speeding truck. They all died, the man was distraught, he blamed himself, he nearly killed himself at least a couple of times. But in the end after about a year living there and working on the boat, getting it "ship-shape", he sold the boat to return to his life again, presumably wiser.

This movie - is a fascinating & haunting personal growth story - but to understand it helps if you live on a boat / are on aboard one / own a boat.Many aspects in this story would be lost on apartment or house dwellers (as well they should).A true portrait of life on an older vessel in adverse conditions - cold & condensation is are just some of them.My personal favorite - the scene with the head !These parallels of repairing ones vessel back to live from total neglect is no simply task. Repairing & restoring - while suffering through it - is so contrary to the rapid throw away and sink'em style of other stories or lifestyles..This movies sticks with you and evolves - if you give it the time it needs to fill your sails with air to propel you forward - caution this is NOT a mega cruise and there is no fresh shrimp at the buffet on the lido deck !

well...lets see. i admit to being an avid movie-holic. (i am currently on a 12 frame program). i honestly don't know what movie the other people found in their DVD container. the only way i could rate this movie on the high end of the scale is to drop massive amounts of ecstasy and view the entire film through rainbow colored glasses. what an insult to waste the talents of such experienced good solid actors with this drivel. i am the first to admit that the cinematography was solid but most of it was a little too derivative. i would like to think i understand the concept of still photographic images on film, but after awhile it became rote and lost its initial impact. i pretty much had the film figured out in the first 10 minutes. (i did not know the car accident where the lead character loses his entire family was due to an illicit affair he was having.) just about everything that transpired was telegraphed way ahead like when you fighting someone that pulls their arm way back before they strike. don't get me wrong. i like thoughtful, insightful, quiet character driven movies. just don't mistake this leaden, draining, bloated jackwagon of a film as one of those kind. if i had a choice between watching this movie or paint drying, i would definitely go for the wall. if you are still not deterred from wasting any of your precious time and still wish to view this throughly turgid affair after reading this piece, don't forget to go to the hardware store first and pick up a few gallons....just in case.