Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of those films, where the least said about the plot the better, so in an attempt to refrain from giving any spoilers I boil it down to one sentence. Julian (Mike Vogel) attempts to stop his best friend Terry (Danny Pino) from any making any rash choices after he follows his fiancée June (Brittany Murphy) rent a room at the River View hotel.Given the low IMDb ratings I didn't really expect much from this below-the-radar thriller. The movie itself is heavily influenced by two great directors. One of them is Alfred Hitchcock. The attempt at replicating the style of 50s and 60s thrillers is visibly apparent not only in the cinematographic style ripe with noir overhead shots, neons, stylisations and a need to push the suspense and tension ahead of action and cheap thrills. The whole movie itself if an old-fashioned hotel with a outdated bell-boy playing a key part in the build-up and story. Overflowing with a retro feel it becomes a stylish homage aimed at those who miss the good old days.On the other hand you can see the strong impact that Christopher Nolan has in updating the thriller genre and fully using the superior technical capabilities of modern film art to increase the mystery, growing tension and keep tabs on the plot. The whole story is expertly told in a non-linear fashion, where scenes from the past and present intermingle forcing you to logically put the pieces together (in a well-done mix-up of Innaritu storytelling and "Memento" type editing). Directed with swagger debutant Alex Merkin shows a lot of confidence and immense promise with the use of tools at his disposal.That said the movie does seem a tad overlong and given this was based on Merkin's short film it seems he essentially should have met somewhere in between at around 60-70 minutes. The movie tends to drag on incredibly as the script is pulled out in order to somehow reach a proper running time. The suspension drastically drops, although manages to get back on track with the final resolute bang of an ending. Basically a poster movie for the need to be able to be a bit shorter than the standard 90-120 minutes of the Hollywood 'full length feature'.Honestly the script itself is in the most part wildly predictable, as the movie is mostly pushed ahead thanks to its style, while not putting enough pressure on the story itself. The mismatch of the mediocre story and the overstretched plot almost derails the meticulous set-designed and claustrophobic noir feel to the movie.Acting creds are generally fine with Brad Greenquist as the Porter giving the best performance of the lot. All in all worth a watch and I could see Merkin making a name for himself given a script with actually can fill-up the required runtime.

This was a very good movie. I put off renting it for a couple months because it looked like it would be stupid but I am glad I finally saw it. This is a clever and unique movie. The last couple movies that Brittany Murphy has been in were not what I would call great(not even good really), so I wasn't expecting much. She didn't really have a huge speaking role in the movie but she did a pretty good job. The other two actors did a great job. I love the fiancé. He quickly went from a blubbering, crazy guy who was losing his mind to a smart quick thinking genius who pulled of the ultimate revenge. Definitely gonna be on the top of my list of good suspense movies to recommend to people.

I saw it. I loved the cinematography and the acting was decent, too. Also, I didn't think it was unnecessarily slow. But the second half of the story, especially the ending ruins everything.There is a twist in the story which is quite nice. Yes, there is only one twist, and it happens in the first half of the movie. The one at the end is not a twist at all, it's just an easy way for the writer to escape a situation while achieving an illusion of being clever. He is not. The story is not. It's just an insult to the intelligence to the audience. It's meant to hide the countless errors, inconsistence, plot holes and unnecessary scenes and subplots.It is a shame that the horribly lousy screenplay ruins an otherwise beautifully shot and excellently played movie.

An interesting story, though a little predictable.The suspense was upheld throughout the movie, and there was real tension in many scenes, accomplished through a nerve-wracking score and drawn-out scenes that got my teeth grinding.I immensely enjoyed the cinematography and effects .. it created a dark and brooding atmosphere that had me mourning the conclusion before it came about.The acting was fairly good, no real complaints. I especially enjoyed the hotel concierge character, who added an old-school feel to the film.Overall, I definitely enjoyed the movie, although I found the story to be almost too simple for its length; it felt like a short story stretched to fit a feature length film.