MusicChat
It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.
RavenGlamDVDCollector
(the spoiler bit is only in the last paragraph)Be warned, if you're scouting for a hot title, this one is just too much of a cold fish to be anything like that, or if you're scouting for a dark title, this one is too mild to be anything like that either. Good performance by Ellen Barkin, but if you carry an erotic torch for her, go to the sea, the SEA OF LOVE, ah, those were the days. Peta Wilson? I was, upon first sight, disappointed, but, yeah, she is something to see, especially as the film progresses. She's a very complicated character though. So any fun? Quite frankly, few and far between, with lotsa yuck getting into the way. And it's kinda dorky yuck, cause convincing it's not, the dead bodies are clearly prop department works of 'art.'Getting slapped with a wet fish through the face, that's what this creepy movie is. I don't mean creepy in a shivery way. I mean creepy as in yuck. Corpses galore. Naked corpses. Bloodied naked corpses. Close-ups of bloodied naked corpses. This movie caters to the vulture mindset.Quite distasteful, leaves a bad taste, though well-filmed. Unsettling story-line is not what I am referring to. Plot holes and lots left unexplained.A dark psychological thriller loaded with psychobabble, inane Freudian ramblings that has never held any water but is being devoured like sweet-cakes at a church fair, because it tells people what they want to hear. In the World as it is, we are all very, very different, and no one damn universal truth exists. We are all very strange bunnies, so damn the case files, just because Person A acted like this ten decades ago, doesn't mean everybody is going to follow suit, but there is a whole industry of psychologists who can afford to live life up high in their own ivory towers charging rent to other people's castles up there in the sky. Much of the motivation doesn't even make sense, for instance, the sniper scenes, I fail to understand, obviously because it is just a bunch of junk.I originally saw the downloaded trailer and figured it to be a good bet. Well, it's kinda really really a letdown in many, I'd say, most ways. Visually not nearly as exciting as it promised to be. Wallowing about in stupid badly-presented psychological disorders. The swimming pool scene was well done, however. Danielle Marie Straub, no speaking part, unforgettable in her aquamarine bathing suit, the very symbol of innocence, plays the molested child with a dismayed questioning expression that speaks volumes.It was an expensive purchase for me. All well and fine if you can see it for the price of a rental, or on cable, whatever you guys do, but I went the whole hog.Now, the spoilers:Julian Sands. Getting eaten alive. Yells out campy-voiced. Oh go home man! Karen Young, who is quite good at times, is absolutely inadequate in that crucial scene where she approaches drag- outfitted Dr. Broussard. That has the feel of a first attempt. And what a monumental waste writing Peta Wilson out of proceedings long before the end. Some unforgivable mistakes.
celenazinc
I got about halfway through this movie and was very disappointed. It was just flat out boring and completely unrealistic. I can get past being unrealistic in a lot of movies, but not when it's supposed to be a crime drama thing. The evidence collection and interview processes were just plain oddball. I started fast forwarding to see how it ended. And then got bored with that and just turned it off and returned it. The main character, played by Ellen Barkin, just wasn't believable at all. Peta Wilson acted very well in this film, but her character was way out there and there wasn't anyone for her acting talents to play off of that made it work.
MASTERPC
I have read the 28 most recent comments by various people regarding this movie and was surprised that no one mentioned the fact that the first victim, shown on the bed with the "missing eyelids", as the camera pans up and away from her face, blinks! Yes, BLINKS! I recorded it as it came on HBO this past weekend and when I saw this I literally had to replay it several times, focusing on one eye at a time to make sure that I was not seeing things! Of course, after that, it was hard to take the movie seriously although there were a few interesting and intense scenes with Julian Sands. Very disappointed and give it a 4 mostly due to the fact that the 1st victim blinks in one of the last frames as the camera pulls away from the body/face. Too bad.
danmconley
I can understand those who give Mercy a 1 ... in many ways, it's a terrible film. For the most part, it's a teenaged boy's wet dream about beautiful lesbians, wrapped in Lynchian style. And yet, I couldn't stop watching it. Ellen Barkin remains a highly underrated actress (and an unbelievably sexy woman for her age.) Peta Wilson has hypnotic beauty and holds her own quite well with Barkin. She actually "researched" the role by delving into LA's lesbian S&M scene for a few weeks ... what a trooper.If you have Memento-esque short-term memory lapse, this is a great film. Forget the plot and float along in its lurid eroticism.
