October Gale
A doctor takes in a mysterious man who washes ashore at her remote cottage with a gunshot wound. Quickly they both learn the killer has arrived to finish the job, while a storm has cut them off from the mainland.
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- Cast:
- Patricia Clarkson , Scott Speedman , Tim Roth , Callum Keith Rennie , Aidan Devine , Eric Murdoch , Billy MacLellan
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Reviews
This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place
Thanks for the memories!
Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.
The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
Some movies are just tough to sit through. 'October Gale' is one of them. You really need the patience of a saint to get through it. Director/writer Ruba Nadda creates scene after scene of absolute nothingness that the audience is expected to sit through and hope whatever's coming is worth the wait. It's not. The premise seemed interesting enough and with a different script could have made for a really exciting, interesting movie. Instead we are left with this. Even a late cameo from the always great Tim Roth isn't enough to save things. You could tell Nadda had banked a lot on this performance by Roth being the Savior of his film but when you give his scene a moments thought you realise just how irrational and senseless the whole thing is. Patricia Clarkson in the lead role gives a real snoozefest of a performance and Scott Speedman never really gets out of first gear either. He seems as bored by the script as the audience will be. I don't think Nadda ever really settled on what he wanted the film to be. One second the characters are falling in love, the next they're fighting for their life, the next they're discussing the meaning of life. There's a lot going on here but sadly none of it's good.
So far I've liked Patricia Clarkson in every role in which I've seen her. She first caught my attention in Todd Haynes's "Far from Heaven", and she's also had good roles in "The Green Mile", "Good Night and Good Luck" and "Six Feet Under". To be certain, she was the only interesting character in "The Maze Runner". "October Gale" isn't a great movie but manages to create some suspense. The main thing that I derived from the movie is that Georgian Bay (a branch of Lake Huron on the Canadian side) looks like a nice place to visit. That's right, the unpleasant things that happen to Clarkson's character on the coast of Georgian Bay won't scare me away from that place.Anyway, it's an OK movie. I hope that Patricia Clarkson's career continues as it has.
I was pleasantly surprised when coming across this movie, I found the whole movie intriguing, leaving me wanting to keep watching to find out what's around the corner... The movie is set in a stunning location, with a greatly put together cast, which was well acted throughout. Stranger scenarios have happened I imagine, I will give no spoilers, however for those looking for a film which you can sit back and fall into to escape the woes of your own lives, I would highly recommend this title.. I would like to add that the audio composition is a perfect fit, none of this commercial EDM which appears to be in everything nowadays.. The main female character is stunning, the main male character is a hunk, great chemistry and quite an imaginatively melted collection of daydreams... Check it out
Premiering during a special presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), October GALE is a dramatic thriller that's too devoid of tension to be considered thrilling and far short of emotional and relatable characters to be considered dramatic.It's a shame because the opening sequence of sweeping Parry Sound long shots and Steadicam shots of Helen (Patricia Clarkson) opening and cleaning the family's vacation cottage offered a promising segue into what appears to be (on the surface), a study in normative bereavement with a murderous twist. Likewise, the film's setting is a beautiful contradiction of comfortable isolation that quickly dissipates as the story's nonsensical and improbable choices become too incredulous to be believable.Grieving the loss of her husband (played in silent flashbacks by Callum Keith Rennie) in a wild storm the previous year, Toronto doctor Helen Matthews (Clarkson) decides to return to her family's isolated cottage in an effort to move on. After single-handedly opening up the warm and comforting home in Georgian Bay, Helen begins the arduous task of sifting through and removing some of the mementos accumulated during their 32-year marriage.The visual and aural planes of this transition from acceptance to perseverance are well crafted; the non-diegetic musical score gives way to diegetic empathetic sounds of the bay that feel crisp and renewing. Fortuitously so considering Helen shortly thereafter comes face-to-face with an unexpected and mysterious gentleman (Scott Speedman) crawling and bleeding on her floor with a gunshot wound. After treating his wound and grabbing her rifle, Helen waits for the stranger to wake up and when he does, Will is vague about the attack and about his life thus far until local handyman Al (Aidan Devine) decides to pay Helen an unexpected visit. Will relents and reveals that he had spent time in prison for manslaughter after a bar-fight and that the guy's father 'is not going to stop until he's killed me'.As the storm gains momentum outside, Helen agrees (stupidly I might add) to allow Will to stay in her home as they lazily prepare themselves for Al and the gunman to return. The script here is utter wish-wash: writer/director Ruba Nadda (INESCAPABLE) fails to build any suspense and tension for the ensuing action causing it to fall flat, it fails to explain how Helen's appears to be a survivalist doctor who's also a crack shot, nor the circumstances of Will's incarceration and Helen's inconceivable trust in a man she just met.Clarkson and Speedman should however, be applauded for their performances: extracting every nuance they could from their two-dimensional characters to at least be creditable. Overall, if 'it's OK' are the only two words I can come up with after 91 minutes, it's probably safe to say you might want to wait to watch it on video.You can catch me on my handle @TheSachaHall or at The Hollywood News.