Memorable, crazy movie

Great Film overall

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

OK so I'll start at the beginning. It has promise. Child goes miss so understandably the parents are distraught and will do anything to find him. You expect them to go into the jungle and as the movies states "the terror" that awaits. So naturally you imagine that the couple will be terrorized, hunted and having to fight for their lives. But nope...just two people descending into madness traipsing through the jungle only to fall upon a colony of crazy kids that kill by throwing stones at you and shoving sticks into you. Where were the crazies parents? Why were they all boys? And as for the bonkers mother...well she just ends up surround by the crazies and being a shrine to them. All in all I can only sum it up as weird, pointless STUPID waste of time and don't bother!!!

"Vinyan" is the type of movie that just doesn't sit well with everyone or has a certain appeal to just anyone in the audience. I had expectations to this movie, because from what I read on the DVD cover, then I was intrigued.And then I watched the movie, and that expectation dissipated like mist before the rising morning sun. This movie wasn't anything at all what I had expected it to be.What works well enough in "Vinyan" is the atmosphere and the building up of suspense. However, it is not really given enough room to bloom into something great, because it is weighed down by the horrible slow pace the movie trots forward in. Plus, the characters in the movie were not really characters with dimensions and personalities that you cared about; they came off a shallow and lifeless drones that were just milling about at the whim of the director.Visually, then there is a lot of great scenes, especially in the jungle, that are impressive.However, entertainment-wise, then "Vinyan" fails to fully deliver, at least for my account. I suppose I wasn't in that particular target audience that would find such a movie enjoyable.

Determined Jeanne Bellmer (a fine and affecting performance by the ravishing Emmanuelle Beart) and her husband Paul (a sturdy portrayal by Rufus Sewell) encounter a dangerous tribe of feral children after they venture into the Burmese jungle in search of their missing son. Writer/director Fabrice Du Welz relates the intriguing story at a deliberate pace, does a bang-up job of creating and sustaining a powerfully dark, bleak, and hopeless tone that's dripping with dread and despair, offers a vivid evocation of the seamy Thailand locations, firmly grounds the premise in a credibly harsh and sordid reality, and takes the viewer on a gradual descent into hell that becomes more increasingly intense and unsettling as the narrative unfolds towards a devastating downbeat ending. Moreover, this picture acquires extra poignancy and resonance from the potent central theme about the tremendous precarious lengths one is willing to go to in order to be reunited with someone they love. Sewell and especially Beart do sterling work in the lead roles. Julie Dreyfus registers well in her regrettably small part as the spunky and enticing Kim. Petch Osathanugrah likewise impresses as treacherous local guide Thaksin Gao. Benoit Debie's sumptuous widescreen cinematography provides a wealth of stunning visuals. The brooding score by Francois Eudes hits the moody spot. A truly nightmarish movie.

Straight away I must say I agree with most comments in the "I hated this movie" category. However, I am writing this review to point out what I think might have been some redeeming features of it until they were totally spoiled by the fantasy elements and the ridiculous ending.Both my wife and myself were first attracted to it as it was classed as a drama on its TV showing (totally wrong, it should have been a fantasy/horror - there were certainly no thrills in it for us, we do sometimes quite like a good thriller - and then we wouldn't have bothered at all). We also thought the plot sounded plausible - a wealthy western couple losing their son in a tsunami, and then the seriously disturbed mother persuading dad to go with her look for him.On watching the film, we thought it went well along these lines, with the boy apparently being spotted on a video of children playing on a river bank, with one of them wearing a red shirt - possible the Manchester United shirt their son was wearing when he was washed away. This video was seen in a screening amongst wealthy patrons of charities organizing relief for the tsunami victims, also very plausible.So off they go, with some very good shots of the scenery and local means of transport, etc. Unfortunately much of it was at night-time, so we saw little of it. Why do film makers do this, or is it the reproduction on a TV screen? Anyway, that was the first put-off for us. Another put-off was the interminable length of many scenes, where nothing else happened (e.g. when the husband rescues his wife from the sea and they were splashing around in the water for far too long) and we were trying to be patient whilst waiting for the scene to change.As events unfolded, and I will not say more to avoid further possible spoilers, the only other redeeming quality for us was the chance that they might find their son, and we watched it through to the end with this hope in mind.I must add one major criticism of the use of the children in the film, on top of everything that has been said in other reviews. Were the film- makers trying to emulate "Lord of the Flies"? I can understand how boys of rich parents in an English prep school can turn into little savages, but the local children in such a disaster, having lost their parents, would not gang up in the forest like this. I think it was very degrading of the people who live in these areas to suggest they would.Googling child abandonment in Burma does not change my view of this film. This child abandonment is due entirely to the military, of which there is no mention. If there had been, and cut out the fantasy, then it would have been far more successful as a drama, albeit fictional.