Sadly Over-hyped

One of the best films i have seen

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

I enjoyed this movie but I am glad it ended when it did because it had exhausted its theme. It is really a reflection on how we can only regain our humanity if we get back to nature, as the protagonist does perforce because of the inexplicable appearance of the wall. It's beautifully acted, directed and filmed, with some lovely Bach - which seems to be there just to add lyricism and melancholy, but it's still welcome. Be warned - the appearance of The Wall is never explained and there is no resolution. Our heroine just decides that being now At One with nature, she may as well go on living. Lovely Salzkammergut scenery. In fact, it's really The Sound of Music but without the songs, the Nazis and the nuns. Instead of which there are a great dog, a cow and two cats, plus our heroine and a whole load of angst. Sound a bit odd? Well, the Germans and Austrians do have this big thing about nature ...Update: I have just given the movie a second viewing and while the mystery of what is going on remains, I was even more impressed than first time around by the cinematography, which is really alpha plus. So I have upped my original 7 to 8

The protagonist finds herself in an unexplained silent disaster and in complete isolation which immediately intrigues. Particularly since it plays in the right-there. There is no reminiscing about the past, her background, people she knows.Although she makes some effort to find out more about this invisible wall the story zeros in on her sole surviving and loneliness. I was completely sucked in to the narration, the beautiful scenery and the phenomenal acting. The performance is stunning and breathtakingly intense. This one I have to see a few more times just to get the complete gist of it. Beautiful! I wonder though if there is any significance to the radio channel playing in the beginning, the language is undetectable. Maybe it was done to intensify the sense of alienation.

I have not read the book nor read about the movie before watching it.Almost everything about this movie is brilliant - location story cinematography acting editing - should have belonged in my top list of favorites. It is not. Even with the thematic similarities with Cast Away (7.7), Life of Pi (8.1) and elements from The Mist (7.2 - looking inwards at the face of a larger unknown), this premise and the story works beautifully. Stunning visual compositions and the soulful performance absolutely stand out.What positively do not work are the monologues and the music. 'The wind was howling and the house was creaking' is something that needs to be written in a book – to say the same thing in the movie is an annoying intrusion while the audience is riveted with the visuals, sound and performance. There is at least 50% excessive pointless monologue in the movie – anybody heard of the use of silence? The movie is meant to be philosophical and inward looking. Lingering beautiful shots will be totally understood by the audience who are willing to invest in a movie like this. Why impose a monologue when it is only going to kill the impact of the moment? See Cast Away for comparison – for almost one hour in the movie there is no music no monologues – just the background sounds.The "music" is unsuitable and almost completely not required. It is disappointing that the director who could write such screenplay, extract such magnificent visuals and riveting performance has no taste in music.Perhaps with 15 less minutes and 50% less monologues, it could have made it to top ranks instead of the 6.7 it currently is.

Movies are art, some good & some bad. This abstract movie is bad art in my opinion & it's more like a Yoko Ono, Jackson Pollock, or poop on a canvas as opposed to a John Lennon, Salvador Dalí, or art done with some skill. To the average person this movie is just a lame medium-high budget movie with no beginning or end. The smug artsy-fartsy crowd like this movie because it strokes the ego to know it has a hidden meaning, but the hidden meaning of this film does not uplift mankind like a They Live (1988). It has the same lame, apathetic, give up & go along hidden meaning of the junk film Larry Crowne (2011). Symbolism explained: Apathetic woman doesn't want to know why she is trapped in a big bubble so she keeps the animals she finds around her in a little bubble to give her inauthentic life meaning, the end. "How you like them apples."