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13 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
What's Real And What Isn't?, 24 April 2006
6/10
Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States

Here's a modern-day film noir in which you're never sure what's real and what isn't real. There is a possibility you may get tired of guessing and give up on this film 3/4ths of the way through, as I almost did but it worth finishing. It also was better the second time around

The problem is just too many flashbacks. If some of those scenes were not replayed so often, or a few of the many twists eliminated, it would have been a super movie. It still was fascinating in parts. It grabs you, and you can't stop watching to see what the real story is. Along the way, is a bunch of nice colors and some nice film noir-type in the beginning and then during the ending credits.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Watch this at least two times., 5 June 2003
8/10
Author: Julie Hoverson from Seattle

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Seriously - this is one of those films which is a whole different movie the second time through, since you know the "secret ending" and can "get" what's going on.

The basic story appears to be that a Gene, a cop turned mystery writer (with a recurrent dream of being buried alive), sees a new woman (LFB) moving in across the street. He meets her, is incredibly witty and charming, she's afraid of something, and they steam the windows. She invites him back for seconds that evening.

When he gets there, she's dead. He starts on a haphazard, emotionally-intense investigation into her murder - at least until morning, when everyone begins to deny she was ever in the house, let alone that she was murdered. A new woman lives in the house, and claims to have been there for several years. There is no case file on the murder, but Gene finds a scene that looks strikingly similar in an old case - something that he and his partner investigated several years ago. Things get weird from there.

It's hard to even begin to laud this film without giving stuff away, so I'll be as oblique and intriguing as I can.

One of the things I like best about the told-in-flashback style of the movie is that as the movie progresses, the flashbacks change. When a flashback repeats, sometimes you see it from a different angle, sometimes it is longer, continuing past where it ended the previous time, and sometimes it's simply closer to reality - having been "idealized" or "fictionalized" (remember, Gene's a writer - though the movie is not one of those "and it was all the book he'd just completed" cop outs) the first time through.

That's why it's fun to watch this movie a second time - to see where and what changes, and to understand the significance of seemingly meaningless but repetitive background images (a moving van being loaded with a white cabinet) which turn up again later. AND to watch the looks on the face of the friend you're showing it to - who hasn't seen it before - as they try to figure out what's up.

Watch this movie twice. Really.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
intriguing, good suspense film, 9 June 2002
7/10
Author: CryFi from Lansingburgh, New York, USA

Not a confusing film, but an intriguing one. Viewers learn more and more, and in the end everything is wrapped up and nothing is left without explanation.

Early on it calls to mind The Lady Vanishes (1937)...but it is different than that. Later on it calls to mind, to some degree, Jacob's Ladder (1990), but it is not that film either. There are aspects that almost seem surreal, until we gradually learn what is going on - there is a definite resolution; this is not like the stereotype of a David Lynch film.

A good suspense film that deals with memory and identity and their unravelling as a mystery.

Lara Flynn Boyle is especially attractive here: softer and not as extremely, frighteningly thin as she has been recently.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Past tense, present tense, future tense...who can tell the difference?, 28 July 2003
4/10
Author: gridoon

First of all, anyone who claims that he or she didn't find this head-scratcher confusing must be the next freakin' Einstein! The plot is maybe more tangled than that of "The Usual Suspects", and there are enough distorted/out-of-chronological order events, half-remembered/repeated/altered lines and "was-it-all-a-dream-or-was-it-real?" tricks to baffle even the most avid mystery fan. Generally, movies with multiple twists and turns can be great fun, but this one is so contrived that it tried my patience. Besides, I don't understand why Lara Flynn Boyle had to whisper almost all of her lines (to come off as "seductive", perhaps?), or why they would pair her romantically with Scott Glenn, an actor almost 30 years older than her. (**)

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Film Noir with a Twist (or two) (or Three), 23 May 2001
10/10
Author: pawprivate from Amherst, Massachusetts

OK, so you have to think as you watch - and after - but this film is a gem - and it hangs together even though it seems at times to be an incarnation of Twin Peaks - and THAT is NOT a bad thing! (There's even a Twin Peaks cast member aboard!) This is an excellent Psycho-Drama that will keep most theorizing right up to, through and past the end. Intelligent Film Noir, superbly cast and scripted - for those who like their Films Dark.

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Suspense thriller about a detective coming out of a coma., 21 April 2003
Author: Ringo

This is an underrated -- in fact, completely ignored -- thriller which starts out like "Jacob's Ladder" or "The Sixth Sense" but quickly follows plot twists that prove intriguing enough to merit more attention. The opening scenes are slow and suggest a bad b-film's in the offing, and the movie's not a textbook film noir example, but who cares? Lara Flynn Boyle gives a great performance as does Anthony LaPaglia, despite getting the short straw in screen time, and the Scott Glenn story's interesting.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Film Noir, Wizard of Oz, 5 May 2002
7/10
Author: savanna-2 from USA

Truly a good film and for noir addicts it is a must see. I see the Twin Peeks comparison and not surprising, one of the writers, wrote for that show (as well as his brother). Not for a casual view, it can quickly become confusing, as shown, almost completely, in flashback style. Nice "tip" to the Wizard of Oz and the attention to detail, is amazing.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Very confusing film, 25 July 1999
Author: lion-17 from Netherlands

The movie "past tense" is rated with an "8" here. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!! I watched the film for about 1 hour, then i turned it of, it was that bad. Very confusing with a lot of flashbacks. One moment the guy seemed to be in very good shape, the next he's in a coma in the hospital. And it started so well, i mean, the 2 main-actors hitting the sack after just 5 minutes, that's a new record for sure,guys.

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0 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
gets worse from minute to minute, 25 April 2000
4/10
Author: alexander.stroeck from vienna

The promissing cast starts good with nice scenes between the beautiful Lara Flynn-Boyle and Scott Glenn as the sensitive cop. But the story gets so weird: Lots of cheap flashbacks and "mysterious" knifes, glasses and fruits falling on the ground – uuups! – oh, you mean this is suspense? Then watch it. I didn´t enjoy it: 4 out of 10. To less Lara F.B. for to much movie.

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