ana claudia talancon Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It seems like an odd choice to hire a Frenchman to remake a film by Japanese master Takashi Miike. I've only seen half a dozen Miike features to date, which isn't many considering that he makes at least that number in any given year. But I can say that his style ranges from utterly insane to completely cracked, and few French filmmakers -- who generally specialize in intelligence and austerity -- could match him. But director Eric Valette brings something interesting to the new remake of One Missed Call. Most horror remakes come complete with an undisguised sense of callousness, and almost flat-out disdain, for their intended customers. But One Missed Call has a kind of effective low-key tone. Perhaps it was confusion or sheer laziness, but it worked for me far better than some other junky remakes I've seen.

Sure, the story is unbelievably stupid, and the film doesn't do much to justify its silly logic. Both this and Miike's film were adapted from a novel by Yasushi Akimoto, and I'd like to believe that the novel made a far better argument for its plot. A med student, Shelley (Meagan Good), dies after receiving a mysterious phone call. After her death, her phone mysteriously dials a friend, and that friend dies. And so on. The calls come in dated and timed to some point in the near future, and the recipient of the call hears his or her own voice at the moment of their death. So they know exactly what day and time they're going to die and they know what they're going to say, but that information can't help some of the dumber characters from saving their own lives. One character sits at a café with only one minute to go to his impending death. Instead of sitting there safe one minute longer, he decides to get up and cross a busy street.

Alone With Her is an intelligent thriller about a practiced, professional stalker named Doug (Colin Hanks) who settles on a single, 20-something young woman in the Los Angeles area and then goes to work with breathtaking efficiency. Before Amy (Mexican actress Ana Claudia Talancon) even knows that she's about to have a new best friend, Doug has already broken into her apartment and is carefully watching her every move through the easily-purchased 'nanny cams' he's placed in every room. With unfettered access to her personal life, he begins to soak up information like a sponge -- her job, her taste in music, her sort-of boyfriend -- and then uses that information as currency at 'random' coffee-shop meetings where he tries to strike up a friendship. Even though Amy is intrigued at bumping into a stranger who likes the same obscure band and watches the same movies, she instantly confesses to a friend that there's something odd about Doug that she can't quite put a finger on. Even though his words are perfect, the music underneath is still sinister.

What sets the film a notch above standard genre fare is its ability to ask bigger questions about a stalker like Doug. Does he really believe that a complete absence of chemistry can be overcome through superior information? What would happen if all his manipulations eventually paid off in a fantasy bedroom encounter -- is it even possible he could perform? Does he really expect to worm his way into a working relationship, or does he really get off on the game itself? One of the most chilling scenes occurs when Doug makes a 'mistake' during a routine encounter with Amy's best friend, Jennifer. (Jordana Spiro) Having misjudged Jennifer's suspicions of him, which are huge, he steps into her trap when she asks him a question about a phony place in the town he says he's from. As soon as the words escape his lips, he realizes she's just caught him in a lie. He excuses himself to the bathroom and begins to hop around in mad frustration, like a little boy who's just been beaten at a video game.