What the film lacks in dramatic depth it makes up for in its visuals, which keep viewer attention even when the story drags.
Haven (2006)
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Bill Paxton, Orlando Bloom, Stephen Dillane, Agnes Bruckner, Victor Rasuk
DVD Info
Release:
Feb 12, 2008
DVD Features:
- Keep Case
- Widescreen
Audio:
- (unspecified) - English
Reviews
The audience just has to work a little too hard to see through the bad editing to the Haven that lies beneath, no matter how interesting and promising that movie may be.
Flowers' manic style...leaves little room to consider what is actually going on beyond all the eye candy and sensory numbing.
The goal seems to have been to create a multilayered thriller, but the senseless, verbose and convoluted saga never generates simple suspense, let alone tension.
By the time this quasi Robert Altman-like meeting of unrelated characters happens -- and even if the viewer has kept track of all the characters -- it's hard to care about much of anything, other than knowing the film is nearly over.
[Director Frank E.] Flowers is clearly talented, with an eye for local color, but grasp of character and psychology is tenuous, and his roundabout, double-back structure quickly grows tiresome and annoying...
A mess. Orlando Bloom had better get those Elves ears back on.
Flowers's directorial debut is sometimes a little hard to follow, but shows genuine concern and hope for his native land.
The tone is moody and bleak, the characters are petty jackasses, and Flowers' heavy-handed messages about colonialism are trite.
An extraordinary directorial debut that just may knock your socks off, or at least your flip-flops. ... Though Flowers may be accused of sensationalizing his subject, there's no denying his stunning cinematic flourishes.
Likely to leave you scratching your head--not merely because the plot's so hard to follow but because you'll be wondering why anybody thought it was worth making.
Bloom is the giant void at the center of the film, and his laughable histrionics pull Haven firmly into camp territory.
The presence in the ensemble of Orlando Bloom, who also serves as a producer, could be an initial enticement, but his performance is one of the weakest in a mixed bag.
Lacking purpose or thoughtful complexity, Flowers' film is an overly ambitious mess.
[Director Frank] Flowers seems more interested in playing with narrative chronology than developing an emotionally and thematically coherent storyline populated by multi-dimensional characters.
An ineffective experiment about ugly things happening in a beautiful place.
A long-shelved, watchable but mediocre Mobius strip of a thriller.
Flowers' 'style' suffers from attention deficit disorder, leaving just enough vital information for you to follow the convoluted plot. But just when one story gets rolling, he's off and chasing another.
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