1. shaunmed

   10

   Hauntingly beautiful and cruel. Nothing about this movie is obvious but it is gripping throughout. like any good movie you develop hopes for the characters and even though they might not come true, you respect the artfulness of the story you're told.… Expand

   • Helpful? 2 of 2 users said Yes.
2. Ananisapta

   8

   If you like linear plots, characters who emote, or lots of poetic dialog, STAY AWAY! If you're offended by sex used callously to manipulate others, FUHGEDDABOUTIT! If you hate foreign language films, ARRIVEDERCI!
   
   That said, I think this film has its strong points. Rappaport smoulders enigmatically; she reminded me of a cross between Vera Farmiga and Meryl Streep. Since nobody in the film emotes, I can rate the whole cast as puzzling.
   
   I'm not sure the film comes together as a coherent story; if you need that, plan on watching at least twice. Perhaps it's in the tradition of Fellini, who famously said, "Don't tell me what I'm doing; I don't want to know!"
   
   Without spoiling the plot, I can ask you to think about the central dilemma: what if you woke up beside a sociopath whom you loved and found yourself loved in return?… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
3. Shiira

   7

   This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. As a point of filmic reference, the filmmaker cuts to the shotgun mic back at the villa, while Guido, a private security guard, gives Sonia a guided tour of the wooded premises. Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation"? Nah. He's not a detective, let alone, paranoid. Guido accepts Sonia at face value, a single woman who works as a chambermaid at a hotel. But could he be a cold-blooded killer? Conditioned by a history of cinematic violence against women, the filmmaker's use of slo-mo during their nature walk intimates that Sonia's life could be in peril. After all, the owners are away. The grounds they're traversing on looks to be a sizable piece of real estate. If she screams, will anybody be able to hear her? Maybe Guido, the kind and sensitive man whom Sonia meets at a speed dating club, in actuality, is a serial killer who makes tapes of his murders. The footage from the surveillance camera could be used to sync up with his homemade sound recordings. (Now can you guess the film?) Maybe the red herring at the outset of "The Double Hour" wasn't a red herring after all. Earlier in the film, when Sonia doesn't go home with Guido, he settles for a one-night stand with a random stranger, showing us a darker side that differs greatly from the man whom the chambermaid sees, in which this singles scene regular curtly dismisses his distraught sex partner from a seedy-looking bachelor's pad. He throws a bottle at the door after the woman from the other side has the gall to call out for his phone number. With a mop, he swabs away the alcohol, evidence of his violent temper. Could the next time be blood? Now, In the security room, Guido demonstrates the sensitivity of his mic by outfitting her with headphones. The moviegoer hears what she hears when she takes them off. The mic picks up everything on the private grounds: the wind, the insects, the rustling leaves, and in the upcoming scene, a conversation between a man and a woman, leading right up to an accident. (The filmmaker has learned his Brian De Palma well.) Likewise, the potential victim acts as if she's seen her fair share of suspense films. Recognizing the genre of the moment, Sonia slyly asks Guido the double-edged question, "Do you bring them all here," with the lake only a few feet away. But Guido misinterprets the bon mot for an obligatory inquiry which all women make about past girlfriends, responding in earnest that Sonia's the first since his deceased wife, and proceeds to pour out his heart to this femme fatale, who forgets the role she was set out to play, and allows the widower's grief to wash all over her. The femme fatale sits down next to him and apologizes, not so much for his loss, but for the betrayal that's about to go down. The film's use of slo-mo supports a narrative that's female. The agency belongs to the woman. The slow-motion denotes Sonia's wish to protract these final minutes with Guido before she reveals her true identity. This is where the "Blow-Out" comparisons reaches its apex. In the 1981 De Palma film, a B-movie soundman out in the field collecting effects for another bad slasher flick, hears a gunshot just before a tire blowout, causing the debilitated car to lose traction on a two-lane bridge, whereas in "The Double Hour", Guido is pistol-whipped by Sonia's beau(a correlation to the gunshot), causing an instantaneous scream to emanate from the woman's throat(a correlation to the blow-out). What ensues in both instances are accidents: the car careening into the icy lake, and Sonia falling in love with her target. The scream gives everything away. The next filmmaker that "The Double Hour" pays homage to is Roman Polanski. In "Repulsion", Catherine Deneuve plays Carole Ledoux, a catatonic young woman who's repulsed by men, while in "The Double Hour", Sonia goes one step beyond catatonia; she's in a coma, and the repulsion this hospitalized accomplice to art theft feels is for herself. Both women see things. Carole sees arms reaching out toward her, molesting her, from the malleable walls of an apartment hallway, and is raped by a man on a nightly basis in bed. Sonia sees arms too, but they're loving arms, embracing her on the sheets. It's Guido the "Friendly" Ghost. Or is it? At the beauty salon where Carole works as a manicurist, the Londoner maims a customer's finger. Similarly, Sonia too is the cause of an on-the-job accident when she breaks a bottle of expensive perfume while cleaning one of the hotel bathrooms. Ultimately, Carole kills two men, for real. Sonia, on the other hand, kills herself, in dreams, when she invents a scenario that has her being kidnapped and buried alive. Like the soundman in "Blow-Out" who saves the prostitute from a near-death experience where air is in dearth supply(below the river waterline), Guido rescues Sonia from her subterranean predicament(a hollowed-out grave). Like Jack Terry, Guido has the recording of a scream.… Expand

   • Helpful? 0 of 0 users said Yes.
4. emkadv

   3

   This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I was very disappointed in this movie. After the comparisons to Tell No One, I expected a tautly scripted film with lots of twists and turns. All the twists and turns in The Double Hour occur during a coma suffered by the female lead character. When that was revealed, I felt like I had read one of those "And then I woke up" stories we used to write in elementary school. Outside of the coma, the whole story is straightforward with no surprises.
   
   And what is the significance of "The Double Hour" (times like 05:05, 11:11, or 23:23), anyway? Although such times appeared repeatedly in the movie, both during and outside the coma, there was no obvious suspense nor plot points associated with those times.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.

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