Frozen (2005)

Excellent adaptation.

As Good As It Gets

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I am a huge fan of Shirley Henderson. And this is a great movie to watch her in. She seems so fragile, so pitiable, so perpetually in need of a hug. Although her counselor cares for her, Kath still becomes more and more distraught, and the viewer does begin to fear for her sanity and her life. Rightly, as it turns out.I have to discuss the ending (hence the spoiler warning). At first I was annoyed; we don't seem to get an explanation. After she breaks into the CCTV place, the guy there seems to think that she has discovered some secret of his. So he goes to her house and tries to make her open the door. But what is it he thinks she's discovered? She then calls up her sister's boyfriend and tells him that she's found out something new about Annie's murder. When they meet in the morning, he apparently thinks that Kath knows that HE is the murderer (which she doesn't, or she certainly wouldn't have been there to meet him), and he kills her. In the same way Annie was killed.And then there's the thing with the roller-coaster picture appearing on the CCTV footage. Very weird.I haven't figured out the truth yet, but there is clearly some kind of reversal going on. When Kath finally confronts Annie, it turns out that it isn't Annie, but Kath herself. This has to mean that Kath (being "frozen") is dead, and has probably been so throughout the movie. She is somehow a ghost investigating her own death. We never see Annie's face; maybe Annie doesn't exist, she's just an invention of the ghost, to trick herself into not confronting the fact that it is she - Kath - who is dead. I don't know, but it's something like that.I like the movie a lot. It makes you think, and it has a wonderful performance by Henderson, who keeps it interesting throughout. I had no problem with the slow pace; as long as Henderson is in view, there's always something to enthuse about.This is a good DVD to own.8 out of 10.

Juliet McKeon's film 'Frozen' tells the story of a young woman searching for the truth about her disappeared sister, and has elements of the thriller, the supernatural, a tale of mental disintegration and, most convincingly, a portrait of Fleetwood (in Lancashire) as a place beyond the end of the world (think of Pavel Pawelikowski's interpretation of Margate in 'Last Resort', and then imagine somewhere even more bleak). But it's a low budget, low-key affair, and while I often consider these virtues, McKeon doesn't quite have the skill to put everything together, or the ability to lace her portrait of darkness with the dose of lightness and humanity necessary to make us care. The result is somewhat alienating for the viewer, and the final message unclear; it feels like a beginner's piece, and more reminiscent of a BBC television film from the 1980s than a conventional movie.

I have just finished watching this film on TV and I was totally absorbed. The casting was perfect, the coastal locations bleak but with a strange beauty as only our coasts have, and the story itself is haunting. This beautifully crafted film, reminiscent of Nick Roeg's adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's 'Don't Look Now', is a credit to the British Film industry. It just goes to prove that you don't need mega amounts of money and 'A list' Hollywood stars to make an thoughtful and very watchable film. In particular, I thought Shirley Henderson as Kath Swarbrick and Roshan Seth as Noyen Roy, were both superb and brought sensitivity to their roles which was both understated and convincing. The direction by Juliet McKoen and screenplay by her and Jayne Steel were, I thought, pretty much faultless. Some viewers have complained about the slow pace - unfortunately now-days the art and skill of building tension or atmosphere gradually is in danger of being lost in favour of crashing out everything at breakneck speed. I loved this film - if you're considering buying it on DVD, 10% of the proceeds goes towards the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.

I just returned from seeing this film in Lancaster. Hearing about a locally shot film, I expected not much more than a mini-DV cheapie. However this film is far removed from that.Kath is a young woman (33) whose sister Annie disappeared two years ago without a trance. Kath rather obsessively hunts around for information to try and work out what happened. The centre of her focus is CCTV footage of her sister, that seems to suggest that something odd happened.Shot entirely in the Lancaster/Morecambe/Fleetwood region, in the North West of the UK, the film has very powerful visuals, the scenes shot on the bay itself have an amazing dream-like quality almost Herzog-like. The direction is never pedestrian, always adding to scenes.Shirley Henderson is superb as Kath, who is just by rights, a typical northern girl and comes across very well as such. The supporting cast is all solid.The script is simply superb, with an ever changing story line, and some very interesting sub-plots, that add a lot of detail to the characters and remind you that nothing ever happens in isolation, there are always other things going on in their lives. Fortunately these do not pose any real pacing issues. The ending is solid.A unique film, it is hard to determine who it would really be aimed at, certainly fans of Don't Look Now, and similar, would really enjoy this - on a larger scale, any fans of small scale, artistic cinema should get their money's worth.In all, a very good film and certainly worth seeing if you get the chance. I am looking forward to a DVD release so I can watch it again.