I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

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 tense, somewhat disjointed story with Kafkaesque overtones ('marked by surreal distortion and a sense of impending danger'): had the film been distributed with the information that it taken from a 1962 novel by Patricia Highsmith ('Strangers on a Train', 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' and the follow-up novels with that character, etc) it would have likely garnered a larger audience. It is a strange psychological thriller that slowly works its way under the viewer's skin. The screenplay was written by director Jamie Thaves who successfully captures Highsmith's extraordinary story. Robert Forrester (Paddy Considine) is a troubled, depressed but decent young man who retreats from the big city and his ex-wife for the tranquility of a small town in Pennsylvania. For some not obvious reason he begins to night stalk a young woman Jenny Thierolf (Julia Stiles), gazing in the dark at the apparently happy Jenny alone in her secluded house. Jenny inadvertently befriends Robert despite the fact that Jenny is in a relationship with Greg Wyncoop (James Gilbert): Greg confronts Robert, a fight ensues and Robert flees after saving Greg from drowning in the river. In a twist of circumstances Jenny begins to stalk Robert, admitting that she has fallen in love with him, but Robert avoids her advances as he is still in the process of an ugly divorce with his wife Nickie (Caroline Dhavernas), a strange behaving woman who feeds on Robert's lack of self worth. When Greg goes missing Robert becomes the prime suspect. With the police on his case the 'crime' becomes threatening, and in typical Highsmith fashion, everything twists and turns at the end, creating a claustrophobic and irrational series of events until the story ends with some questions answered and others left hanging. The actors are excellent and the cinematography by Luc Montpellier adds to the haunting creepiness of the film. Jeff Daniels' minimal music score underlines the tension. Before watching this film, remind your self that you are dealing with Patricia Highsmith's brand of mystery and the film will be more appreciated. Grady Harp

Mathilda May won a César for her role in this film made by Claude Chabrol in 1987. This is a remake, and it stars Julia Stiles in the role of Jenny. I have been in love with Stiles ever since The Bourne Identity, and, while she will not be as good as May, she is still Julia Stiles, and that's enough for me.Robert's (Paddy Considine) marriage has failed, and his method of dealing with depression is to stalk Jenny, thinking she has a great relationship with her partner.The tables get turned, and she begins stalking him. If that is not enough, her boyfriend Greg (James Gilbert) keeps trying to kick his arse. But, then he disappears, and Robert is under suspicion.Twists and turns abound as Robert tries to figure out who is trying to kill him while everyone thinks he is a killer.The owl cries a lot in the film. I'm just not impressed with Considine, and the ending was abrupt.

Virtually ignored on it's release, barely reviewed in the press, I think this is a great film that is misunderstood and unfairly misjudged. This movie is essentially a dark comedy and a bad dream rolled into one. The story, based on the novel by Highsmith, is absurd, of course it's a comedy as all Highsmith's work is essentially darkly humorous, come on, a stalker who gets stalked by his victim? The director has a very subtle touch and I think this is why so many people watching this film are lost, the film doesn't make conventional choices, it simply doesn't make it easy on the viewer that's why so many people feel confused by this movie, but in my opinion many viewers these days are unable to recognize when a film is interesting, doing something different from the norm, and this film is doing exactly that. The film has touches of Lynch, Cronenberg and the Cohens about it yet refuses to follow any of those directors paths.You could say it is quite old fashioned, it relies heavily on mise on scene, a lost art today in most films, but to label it Hitchcockian is doing the film a great disservice because the label is too easy to apply here and the director, I believe, is well aware of the obvious comparison and is constantly playing with those notions. This is perhaps more a philosophical thriller than a psychological one and perhaps that is why it doesn't satisfy everyone, maybe the film could have benefited from a little more tension, but for me it is an intelligent dissection of the dangers of the romantic mind.Robert wants the perfect woman, he stares at her through her window as if in a painting, but he knows the perfect woman doesn't exist, when Jenny invites Robert in the 'real' woman is exposed as being even more nuts than him. Look at what Robert says to Nickie, his ex wife, at the end, 'when I first saw you , you were like a statue, then you moved and it was all...downhill from there on in.' He's only happy with the frozen image of a woman, I believe both Jenny and Nickie's death are kind of willed by this man in some dark way, set in motion by him at the very least, the women he loves are more beautiful to him in death (as statues) than alive. At the end Robert gets what he wishes for, to be in the painting (the window) himself but always alone. Recommended only for those with a wicked sense of humour, patience and a sharp intellect.