Faces in the Crowd (2011)

Is this how Julian McMahon really looks now, or was it just for this movie? Mila Jovovich stars in "Faces in the Crowd" from 2011. She costars with the aforementioned Julian McMahon, and, of all people, Marianne Faithful. I couldn't believe it. Not only did the main character have a problem with "face blindness" but I had it looking at Julian McMahon, with a pot belly and a pitch black wig and at the older psychologist, played by Marianne Faithful, a once drug-addicted singer with long blond hair and a face like Roseanna Arquette.

Whoa. Jovovich is Anna, an elementary school teacher who witnesses a murder and is attacked by the killer. She falls into the water but is rescued. When she wakes up, she has a case of face-blindness and can't recognize anyone. Everyone looks the same to her. This means that she cannot pick out the murderer in a line-up or in a book of suspects.

This is a real, if rare condition that apparently Brad Pitt has. I know someone who worked with him who said he is extremely friendly on the set, but doesn't seem to know people off the set. I then read that he believes he has this disorder, known as prosopagnosia and at the time of the article, he was planning to be tested for it.

Anna does not tell her live-in boyfriend Bryce (Michael Shanks) that the disorder has continued. She sees a psychologist (Faithfull) who teaches her to keep a notebook and to learn to identify people by clothing, mannerisms, etc. Meanwhile, the killer knows who she is, and she is in danger of not recognizing him if he comes after her.

I didn't mind this film, and I find the subject of prosopagnosia fascinating. It didn't have huge production values, and there was nothing really to make it stand out as a film. When Sam (McMahon), the detective involved in the investigation, takes her to the small island town where he grew up, the water looked incredibly fake.

The acting was okay. Mila Jovovich is a striking young woman and she did a pretty good job. Yes, this film could have been better, many films can. But it was a good plot.

Fmovies: We don't get to watch many thrillers lately so I was hopeful about this movie. It was actually satisfactory enough, the changing faces of the supporting cast was fun and sufficient to emphasize with Milla's character. If this was a bigger budget movie, it would be delightful to have some of these faces by more recognizable character actors depending on the situation and her disposition towards them. As it was, the film was more like a procession of many extras (note the collaboration of 4-5 studios). For some weird reason I expected and hoped she would at some point see Philip Seymour Hoffman as her husband, Luiz Guzman as the cop, Eric Roberts as Lanyon, but of course that didn't happen :) I agree with others that the love affair looked superficial and lacking chemistry, but just think (after watching the film) how it would be elevated by a clever and ambitious casting of supporting actors.

On the downside, the suspense level was not really high and the film never came close to being chilling. It could have been a much more captivating thriller. Sometimes the story of the killer was almost a sub-plot and it was her prognosis that was at the forefront, I guess Milla preferred it that way for having more opportunity to display her serious acting skills. My alternative would be to have more scenes with Lanyon and also more innovative stalking by the Lurker. That way the audience would engage better in making guesses about the killer's identity and could actually still be amazed by a clever twist at the end.

Here is a diversion about the leading actor (well, the movie became rather dull enough times to give me an opportunity to amuse myself by reflecting on her career). I think Milla is cleverly changing gear, she is very positively stuck in my mind with the Fifth Element (that was when Bruce Willis was a dashing action star) and I noted her acting in the Million Dollar Hotel as well as her portrayal of Jean Darc. When you come to think of it, she has a remarkably diverse and rich filmography with leading roles in major films while she was very young. Overall however, her last ten years went largely unnoticed by people who are not into resident evil, so now she has the chance to make a re-entry as a fresh face who happens to have a lot of acting experience. In the next few years she could aptly make her mark as the lead actress of noirs and thrillers (a role played by Kim Basinger and Michelle Pheiffer in the last decade).

To sum up, an entertaining and somewhat original movie which unfortunately is not intellectually challenging. Watch it, but with realistic expectations.

After viewing the trailer for this virtually unknown thriller I got excited for two reasons, firstly it stars Milla Jovovich who is exceptional in everything and also because the story looked extremely original, and after viewing, it doesn't disappoint. The story is very different to the usual thriller, a serial killer is stalking women and Milla witnesses one of the murders, the murderer chases her and throws her over a bridge where she hits her head which causes her to get face blindness, which in turn prevents her from identifying the killer and also puts a severe strain on her personal and work life. The subsequent man hunt for the killer is a cracking thrill ride which will keep you on your toes for the entire duration.

This movie boasts a knockout performance by Milla Jovovich, she is so much more than an action star zombie killer, she has a terrific range and is able to make any character believable, she is just amazing in everything I see her in, I do hope she continues to land complex roles like this one because she is so great and infinitely watchable.

The story at times goes off track, towards the end it starts to bring in a romance element which is unnecessary but it's only a minor annoyance, the rest of the movie being great makes up for it. The supporting cast are also good, Australia's own Julian McMahon does the tough cop act perfectly, and Marianne Fairhfull does her cool voice thing very well. The use of different actors playing the same characters was definitely a smart move for this movie, it adds a lot to the whole face blindness element, the director could have been cheap and used cgi to augment people's faces but he doesn't and it's better that way.

Face Blindness is a disease I have never heard of before, I don't know If it's even a real disease but my god it sounds scary, it would truly be a life ruining debilitation. So if you love Milla Jovovich, love thrillers or just after something highly original, check this out. Enjoy.

Faces in the Crowd fmovies. OK, the idea of the movie was quite lovely, didn't expect it, never seen it before therefore I'll have to start with some praises but end it with less enthusiasm sadly. The movie flows nicely, we learn more about Anna's condition, some tension building up, we start to suspect one or the other and then, well it becomes quite clear who the killer is. And from that point on, of course, things aren't that interesting anymore considering the fact that the thrill kinda lost its touch. Nevertheless, overall, it is a nice breath of fresh air really, trust me you can do a whole lot worse than this one, just keep in mind it's not really a horror, more of a thriller with some horror elements incorporated but few at number.

Also, if you liked it, and you probably will, you MUST try "Julia's Eyes"! You can call these 2 movies, step sisters to be honest, in my opinion, the Spanish one wins tho!

So, don't waste more time, try it out, try both of them out, nice adder to the gender!

I have mixed reactions after watching this movie. In some ways, the movie has exceeded my expectations, but then lets it down again and again.

On the positive side, there hasn't been a good whodunit murder mystery in a long time. Taking that into consideration, this movie is a welcome change and even starts of as a good murder mystery. Another welcome change is having Milla Jovovich in a more meaningful role as compared to her heroic association with the "Resident Evil" franchise. As Anna Merchant, Jovovich is a primary school teacher who witnesses a horrific murder after a night out with her friends. Dubbed "Tearjerk Jack" for violating women after killing them and then weeping over their lifeless bodies, the serial killer chases Anna until she falls off a bridge. Two weeks later, Anna wakes up in a hospital with a rare condition known as Prosopagnosia or Face Blindness where her ability to recognize faces is impaired. The disorder becomes an ordeal when she can no longer recognize her friends, the children she teaches and even people close to her like her father. After therapy, Anna realizes that Face Blindness is a serious disorder unless she learns to cope with it. In the process, she gets close to detective Kerrest (Julian McMahon) and learns that the serial killer is still at large. Worse, the killer knows of her condition and is now closing in to finish the job.

Written and directed by Julian Magnat, the concept is almost original and suffices as a thriller. Anna's confusion is actually felt because Magnat uses an average of 3 to 4 actors for each character in the movie. Anna's boyfriend Bryce, played by Michael Shanks, is also played by about 10 other actors. This premise works to some extant by placing the audience in Anna's perspective and each time we see different faces. Prosopagnosia is an actual disorder and portraying it in this movie is a definite tick mark for Magnat. Then it all goes downhill. The rest of the movie becomes so clichéd, it gets to be annoyingly predictable. With most whodunits, the audience is always introduced to the killer, sometimes very early in the plot, before unveiling who the killer is. With this movie, Magnat does the same, but places the killer in easy reach of Anna. So why then should we wait till the end of the movie for the killer to strike? Obviously because the film has to be made with a minimum runtime of 100 minutes! But it doesn't stop there. The ending has to be the mother of all clichés when Anna cannot tell the difference between the hero and the killer because they wear the same clothes. Another negative aspect is the unnecessary romance thrown in. In all of this mess, Anna is romantically inclined to one character, who happens to have the only face she can recognize. Go figure!

For a thriller, Milla Jovovich is not bad as the lead character. No way is she getting anywhere near an Oscar for her performance here, but her portrayal is definitely better than some of her other releases. I can't really say much about the other actors as there are various actors that keep switching each time Anna encounters another character. Since this is Magnat's second foray as director and first as screenwriter, I don't want to be too harsh on the outcome. As a learning curve, if he had paid a little more attention to the plot and it's execution in the final act, this could have been a master thriller.

Watch it if you have to, but on a lazy day. As an alternative, I recommend 1992's "Blink",

The opening montage is artful and interesting, and as you're watching the movie, you probably are interested in the premise, that life would be very complicated if you couldn't recognize faces any longer. So you sit back and prepare for something that might be along the lines of "Insomnia", an thriller with a real foundation in psychological manipulation, with twists and surprises to keep you guessing.

And after that opening montage, it's pretty much all just clichés and tired plot devices and stale acting. We've seen the leads do much better than this. The 'filler' scenes are so trite they feel like they were written and shot in one take. And the 'action' scenes are shot in a way that does engage us at all. And as for the plot itself... have we ever seen a woman fleeing a villain and trip before? Have we seen the protagonist stuck in a situation where the hero has to rush to save her but he can't get to her quickly? And finally, the main crux of the film, the face blindness, is interesting for about three minutes, and then it gets incredibly stale, and yet we have to sit through another hour+ of it. Give this story to Chris Nolan and you'd have something fantastic - but this incarnation of it is really not worth wasting the time on.