Black Pond (2011)
The Thompson family is accused of murder when a stranger dies at their dinner table. Six months later, family friend Tim visits freelance therapist Dr. Eric Sacks and the story finds it's way to the press. The facts are bent and the details spun as the Thompsons become known to the public as 'The Family of Killers'.
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Reviews
Best movie of this year hands down!
So much average
It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Black Pond is not normal. It is odd. It is patchy. It is padded-out with an unnecessary but not unamusing performance from Simon Amstell. It is sometimes confusing and incoherent. It is also hilarious and memorable and brilliantly-performed. Chris Langham (yes, that Chris Langham) is on top form: "It's sheer lunacy to eat a banana at this time of night." There are so many great bits: the "I love you - both of you" in the car. The "phenomenal tw*t" line. Don't miss it. It's excellent. Yes, it feels overlong and underdone, somehow - it might have been better as a short, but even so, there is more imagination and wit on display than in most "quality" movies that stink up the multiplex on a regular basis.
Creepy, uncomfortable, cheap, and actually lacking imagination. It is very confusing when watching the film without the aid of a preview, one doesn't quite understand if it has a serious intent or is just a spoof. The conclusion is quickly that it's a bad spoof. Dysfunctional family, weird outsider, dodgy dog. A dog's dinner. In fact the three legged dog was the best actor. There is a real danger of one being trapped into thinking it's good because it's alternative and built on a £25k budget. It's only just above awful because my compatriots giggled and didn't dump the DVD. but only just. Unfortunately one laughs for all the wrong reasons. Deeply depressing..I lost my sense of humour in the black pond.
I don't know who made this, what their funding was like, but it was very amateurish in feel. It wasn't bad, nothing shockingly awful, but neither was it entertaining, adult or polished.Even accepting it for an indie flick, it just lacked something.Langham was surely cast because they thought it would generate headlines, good or bad but he just lacked something and was phoning it in. The same with Amstell, he clearly did his cameo in one afternoon, probably as a favour to a mate and I wasn't really sure what the point of his character was. Which was a shame because it was his name that sparked my interest.There was no story arc, you were clearly supposed to have already read the DVD cover and we were just there to see how it unfurled.Very disappointing really.
Please don't let the IMDb summary,and indeed the film's own trailer deceive you. This film is not really about a murder,except that's what they are accused of.It's about a dysfunctional couple(with two away from home daughters) and how their lives are changed,and indeed turned upside down by the entry into their lives of a clinically depressed neighbour called Blake. It's one of those films that will benefit from repeat viewing,as it has many nuances that you just cannot pick up in one time. A good thought provoking,and at times moving film. Do give it a try.I am not sure how this film will go down in the US,as although they have the same family problems there,they also have a different way of looking at things.