Paging Emma (1999)
An operator at a mobile pager company has her life turned upside down by a seemingly senseless abduction.
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Simply A Masterpiece
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
I had the (dis)honor of attending this film's premiere in San Juan back in 1999 - after this screening, the film simply vanished from public view, and was never released, theatrically or otherwise, anywhere. Amateur hour meets decent exterior photography in Roberto Buso's first feature film. A completely audience-excluding narrative, blah acting, occasionally atrocious dialogue, a Puerto Rican actress speaking almost-unintelligible English during the film's most "important" moments, a cheap-sounding music score, all with rather mostly-nice-looking photography. An attempt at suspense that leads nowhere. I laughed when I saw that this page now has 69 user ratings (up to a year ago, it had less than 20) - since this movie continues to be gathering dust in a shelf somewhere, I smell IMDb-weighted-average-busting shenanigans. Said 'shennies' are probably related to the US release of Buso's second feature, The Condemned, which - SPOILER FOR BOTH MOVIES - as if it were 'Paging Emma Redux' basically follows the same structure as this film: narratives with almost zero 'exposition', and which end in a character showing up to "reveal" secrets / reasons, which not only seriously underwhelm, but also leave plenty of things frustratingly unexplained anyway. So, not only are you bored out of your mind, but you also end up feeling completely cheated. The 'watchable' sequence I referred to is composed of a few exterior scenes around a lighthouse. If you find yourself with the opportunity to watch this, don't.
This is one of those rare films that is so stunningly beautiful that it is soothing just to watch it. The direction and cinematography are phenomenal, as are actors Mark Fish and Michael Stone. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.