MadsenOMC
07-22-2005, 10:40 AM
SPOILERS!!!!
“The Skeleton Key” is a completely mediocre movie redeemed by an excellent ending. It’s worth seeing for the ending alone, which is good, since nothing else about it is very special or noteworthy. But more on that later (and I won’t give it away).
The movie begins with Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson) taking care of a dying man at the New Orleans Medical Center. When he passes on and his personal effects are thrown into a dumpster (alongside those of many others) because his family wants nothing to do with him, she is devastated.
As she tells her best friend Jill (Joy Bryant), it’s just a business. No one actually cares about the sick and dying people. Worn out and disheartened, Caroline needs a change.
She finds one in the newspaper. $1,000 a week to take care of a sick man out in the swamps, nearly an hour outside of the city. The man, Ben Deveraux (John Hurt), had a stroke in the attic of his home. He is now paralyzed on both sides of his body and can’t speak. According to the lawyer who hires her, Luke Marshall (Peter Saarsgard), he only has a month to live.
The lady of the house is Ben’s wife, Violent (Gena Rowlands). Highly protective of Ben, Violet informs Caroline that they purchased the house in 1962 from a brother and sister who fell on hard times. It has over 30 rooms. As for why Ben was in the attic prior to the stroke, she doesn’t know.
It becomes clear early on that something isn’t right. No mirrors are allowed in the house, Ben writes, “Help Me” on a bed sheet and he appears to be terrified of something (or someone).
When she presses Violent for more information, Caroline learns about the history of the house (they all have one). 90 years prior, a wealthy man and his wife lived in the house with their two young children and two servants.
One night, they threw a huge, fancy party. All of the partygoers got extremely drunk. Suddenly, they noticed that the children were missing, so they all played a game of Find the Children. Much to their horror and astonishment, the children were discovered to be in the attic, learning Hoodoo (different from Voodoo; that’s a religion) from the servants. Outraged, the children’s father has the servants hanged from a tree and burned.
The brother and sister lived in the house until 1962, when they sold it to Ben and Violet. Now, Violet says, you can see them in the mirrors, and that’s why they don’t have any in the house. Caroline scoffs, of course, but Violet informs her that she isn’t a native Southerner. She doesn’t understand the history and meaning of their superstitions.
The more Caroline discovers, the more she becomes concerned for Ben’s safety. She insists that he is trying to tell her something. But as long as she doesn’t believe, no harm can come of her.
For a majority of its running time, “The Skeleton Key” is standard genre fare. Director Iain Softley relies on tired tricks of the trade in an attempt to generate scares. People run into things, mannequins look frightening at first, things (and people) come out from nowhere. It’s quite redundant and annoying.
To make matters worse, he overuses ridiculously loud music cues, as if that alone makes a movie suspenseful and terrifying. It doesn’t. It’s just obnoxious. The music usually accompanies Caroline running into something you don’t see until she does.
It doesn’t help that Caroline isn’t a very sympathetic character. She is a meddlesome, know-it-all pain in the ass who constantly sticks her nose where it doesn’t belong. Though she doesn’t know her at all and has been in the house for about ten minutes, Caroline interrogates Violent, repeatedly asking questions that are really none of her business.
She also continuously does stupid shit that all females do in these movies. Goes into the attic by herself at night. Conducts her own investigation into the house and Hoodoo, going places she shouldn’t. (She learns about red brick dust, which prevents those who mean you harm from entering a room.)
Throw in the classic best friend character who is rational and wise (and who is never listened to) and totally predictable twists (you can easily guess who’s a friend and who isn’t), and “The Skeleton Key” is as routine as it gets. In fact, as the conclusion approached, I was thinking about how much I didn’t like it. It’s so by-the-numbers and follows all of the genre conventions to a T. It was looking like a waste of time and another August bust.
But then, in the last two minutes or so, “The Skeleton Key” redeems itself, and then some. It’s not the kind of jarring twist that comes out of nowhere and makes no sense whatsoever, leaving the viewer pissed off and disappointed. What happens is rooted in all that has come before it, and makes the viewer repeat everything that has happened to see if they fully comprehend it. It may not hold up to logic, but for the purposes of the movie, it makes perfect sense. It really is a killer ending, and almost makes you forget the long, dull trip that preceded it.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call “The Skeleton Key” a good movie. Save for the last two minutes, it’s fairly crappy. I do know that as soon as it was over, I was thinking about seeing it again, just to look for clues and pieces of the puzzle. Truly spectacular ending, and a good ending really makes up for a lot.
6/10
“The Skeleton Key” is a completely mediocre movie redeemed by an excellent ending. It’s worth seeing for the ending alone, which is good, since nothing else about it is very special or noteworthy. But more on that later (and I won’t give it away).
The movie begins with Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson) taking care of a dying man at the New Orleans Medical Center. When he passes on and his personal effects are thrown into a dumpster (alongside those of many others) because his family wants nothing to do with him, she is devastated.
As she tells her best friend Jill (Joy Bryant), it’s just a business. No one actually cares about the sick and dying people. Worn out and disheartened, Caroline needs a change.
She finds one in the newspaper. $1,000 a week to take care of a sick man out in the swamps, nearly an hour outside of the city. The man, Ben Deveraux (John Hurt), had a stroke in the attic of his home. He is now paralyzed on both sides of his body and can’t speak. According to the lawyer who hires her, Luke Marshall (Peter Saarsgard), he only has a month to live.
The lady of the house is Ben’s wife, Violent (Gena Rowlands). Highly protective of Ben, Violet informs Caroline that they purchased the house in 1962 from a brother and sister who fell on hard times. It has over 30 rooms. As for why Ben was in the attic prior to the stroke, she doesn’t know.
It becomes clear early on that something isn’t right. No mirrors are allowed in the house, Ben writes, “Help Me” on a bed sheet and he appears to be terrified of something (or someone).
When she presses Violent for more information, Caroline learns about the history of the house (they all have one). 90 years prior, a wealthy man and his wife lived in the house with their two young children and two servants.
One night, they threw a huge, fancy party. All of the partygoers got extremely drunk. Suddenly, they noticed that the children were missing, so they all played a game of Find the Children. Much to their horror and astonishment, the children were discovered to be in the attic, learning Hoodoo (different from Voodoo; that’s a religion) from the servants. Outraged, the children’s father has the servants hanged from a tree and burned.
The brother and sister lived in the house until 1962, when they sold it to Ben and Violet. Now, Violet says, you can see them in the mirrors, and that’s why they don’t have any in the house. Caroline scoffs, of course, but Violet informs her that she isn’t a native Southerner. She doesn’t understand the history and meaning of their superstitions.
The more Caroline discovers, the more she becomes concerned for Ben’s safety. She insists that he is trying to tell her something. But as long as she doesn’t believe, no harm can come of her.
For a majority of its running time, “The Skeleton Key” is standard genre fare. Director Iain Softley relies on tired tricks of the trade in an attempt to generate scares. People run into things, mannequins look frightening at first, things (and people) come out from nowhere. It’s quite redundant and annoying.
To make matters worse, he overuses ridiculously loud music cues, as if that alone makes a movie suspenseful and terrifying. It doesn’t. It’s just obnoxious. The music usually accompanies Caroline running into something you don’t see until she does.
It doesn’t help that Caroline isn’t a very sympathetic character. She is a meddlesome, know-it-all pain in the ass who constantly sticks her nose where it doesn’t belong. Though she doesn’t know her at all and has been in the house for about ten minutes, Caroline interrogates Violent, repeatedly asking questions that are really none of her business.
She also continuously does stupid shit that all females do in these movies. Goes into the attic by herself at night. Conducts her own investigation into the house and Hoodoo, going places she shouldn’t. (She learns about red brick dust, which prevents those who mean you harm from entering a room.)
Throw in the classic best friend character who is rational and wise (and who is never listened to) and totally predictable twists (you can easily guess who’s a friend and who isn’t), and “The Skeleton Key” is as routine as it gets. In fact, as the conclusion approached, I was thinking about how much I didn’t like it. It’s so by-the-numbers and follows all of the genre conventions to a T. It was looking like a waste of time and another August bust.
But then, in the last two minutes or so, “The Skeleton Key” redeems itself, and then some. It’s not the kind of jarring twist that comes out of nowhere and makes no sense whatsoever, leaving the viewer pissed off and disappointed. What happens is rooted in all that has come before it, and makes the viewer repeat everything that has happened to see if they fully comprehend it. It may not hold up to logic, but for the purposes of the movie, it makes perfect sense. It really is a killer ending, and almost makes you forget the long, dull trip that preceded it.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call “The Skeleton Key” a good movie. Save for the last two minutes, it’s fairly crappy. I do know that as soon as it was over, I was thinking about seeing it again, just to look for clues and pieces of the puzzle. Truly spectacular ending, and a good ending really makes up for a lot.
6/10