surrogate motherhood (or my review of the movie "the tall man")

I've watched all three full—length films by Pascal Laugier and I can say one thing: "Ghostland" is the best thing that Laugier has done. This doesn't mean that his previous films are bad, it's just that making flip films where there's one plot twist first, then a second, then a third is not always a sound idea. OK, what do we have in "The Tall Man"? Well, first of all, the most poor positioning of the painting that I have seen in my life. If you think from the poster, the description and the title that the movie is about some kind of mystical person who steals children, then no, this movie is about something else altogether... it's about something completely different. And that's a bad thing.

Yes, there are paintings that sell before release and are shown as a story about one thing, and then the author turns on Kojima mode and turns everything upside down. This approach rarely works, but it's usually frustrating. It's like you're in the mood to watch a melodrama, and in the second half of the movie, they give you science fiction on the level of Neil Stevenson.

The general idea (without spoilers) is this: in a decaying American town, someone steals children. Days, weeks, months, and even years pass, but no one can find the kids, and the city is overgrown with a legend about a certain Tall Man. And so the local paramedic's son is also abducted, but already at the 30th minute you realize that everything is not so simple in this story.…

The Tall Man is Pascal Laugier's mildest film, which lacks the trademark ultra—violence and attention to the characters' injuries (bruises, cuts, swollen faces, etc.), but some blood will still be shed. There are at least 3 plot twists waiting for you in the film, and the further into the forest, the worse it gets in terms of the perception of the picture. Let me explain: everything starts off pretty cool. A young mother does everything to get her son out of the clutches of a nasty tall man, there is a lot of action and tense scenes, and then a spoiler happens. You're a little shocked by such an abrupt change of course, and while you're trying to acclimatize to the new conditions, the film hits you in the gut with another twist, after which the "evil" in the film takes its toll and you can no longer perceive the tall man in any way. Why? Yes, because the author begins to play moralizing, justifying the actions of the villains. Unfortunately, I can't reveal any further plot details, so I'll just say that the overall moral of the film is kind of nasty. And the attempts to lie in semitones, they say, "everything is for the audience to judge, I'm just showing, only you can draw conclusions," look extremely weak.

So I don't even know... the movie is well made, all the guns are firing in it, it's not boring to watch. But this is the desire to play Shyamalan and demonstrate how the road is paved with good intentions.… TO HEAVEN?! They're just killing me. I recommend watching it, but be prepared in advance that this is not a horror or even a thriller.