Absolutely brilliant

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Waste of time. So many better movies out there that deserve your time.It fails at both farce and thriller, not being funny enough for one and too ridiculous for the other.Highly intelligent lead character would not react the way he does to SO many irrational people and circumstances.One nutter in his life would be feasible, but everyone being a nutter doesn't make it a good farce. And yet he doesn't either suspect anything, nor does he apply his intelligence one iota to protect or extricate himself. Keeps on answering the phone in the middle of the night, keeps on plodding along just putting up with it all as if this is normal.

"The Cry of the Owl" is a 2009 Canadian psychological-drama with thriller elements based on the Patricia Highsmith novel. The story revolves around Robert Forrester (Paddy Considine) who has a great job, but is in the process of a divorce and has recently moved out of the big city. He becomes intrigued by a random girl he spots at a country house and secretly gazes at her from the woods at night. A relationship eventually develops and the girl, Jenny (Julia Stiles), starts overly-monitoring him and he begins to regret the relationship. Meanwhile, Jenny's ex (James Gilbert) isn't happy about the situation and neither is Robert's ex (Caroline Dhavernas). The situation soon spirals out of control.The story is fairly engaging and the actors are effective, particularly Considine as the protagonist, but the ending is ambiguous and left to interpretation. Regardless, the themes are intriguing: romanticism vs. logic, fate and fatalism vs. chance encounter, omens and signs vs. random happenings and the irony of role reversal or reaping what you sow.It's not great and it's too pessimistic -- probably because it's really a tragedy -- but it's a solid psycho-drama with intriguing ideas that'll leave you pondering or scratching your head. The latter is why many people don't like it.The film runs 100 minutes and was shot in Ontario.GRADE: B

Robert Forrester (Paddy Considine) is struggling to divorce his vengeful wife Nickie (Caroline Dhavernas), and he starts peeping in on the simple isolated life of Jenny Thierolf (Julia Stiles). Then she catches him one night, but she invites him in. The stalker becomes the stalkee as Jenny breaks up with her fiancé Greg. Greg decides to fight Robert one night. Robert wins and leaves a drunken unconscious Greg by the side of a river. Soon after, Greg is reported missing and Robert is a suspect.It's a good idea of dysfunctional people finding each other. Director Jamie Thraves just doesn't have the skills to elevate the tension and the drama. There is a lack of moody atmosphere that this movie desperately needs. I love all the actors involved especially Paddy. Dhavernas may be miscast as the bitch. That role needs a darker tougher chick. The potential is there, but the execution is lacking.

This film immediately pulled me in with the first scene of driving-through-the-dark-night, unrecognizable glows of light flying by, signs of life in an otherwise black space and arriving at a warm glow in a quaint house and a woman washing dishes. Robert watches her from the safety of dark woods, night after night, although he has a top design job at an aeronautical firm.The people throughout this film are all askew and odd, relating to each other around corners and the strange connection that occurs between Jenny, the woman in the window, and her voyeur Robert is a desperate attempt at something real made by two eccentric individuals marked by depression and solitude. Like all Patricia Highsmith material, life exists on the edge and comfort is not so easily had.I enjoyed the contrast made between the big city, with Robert's malicious ex-wife living amidst its penthouses, and the small town Autumn leaved rurality that Robert has retreated to. Robert makes efforts to keep himself in his bubble but Jenny, upon discovering him, tempts fate and propels herself upon him, breaking up with her boyfriend to do so and thus setting into motion a weblike story of violence, deception, and the inevitable play of loss after loss.I watched this after seeing Julia Stiles on this season's Dexter and I couldn't help but think the producers must have seen her in this, her characters in both being both haunted with pain, yet filled with resolve. Paddy Considine does a great job playing a man who seems to have been run through the washer and dryer a few too many times, both distant and filled with an undercurrent of emotion.I highly recommend this film unless you demand nothing but car chases and narratives that spell everything out for you in the first ten minutes.