Eavesdropper
Starring:
Costas Mandylor, Lucy Jenner, John de Lancie, John J. York, George Takei, Ben
Donovan
Directed by: Andrew Bakalar Eavesdropper
Reviewed by Paul Heath A
couple of days ago a movie named EAVESDROPPER fell through my door for review.
Upon looking at the cover (above right), I thought to myself 'oh no, not another
low budget science fiction direct-to-video piece of rubbish'. True story.
Thankfully, and this doesn't happen very often, EAVESDROPPER is way above average
and I actually really enjoyed viewing it. Based
on true events, EAVESDROPPER revolves around a group of deaf patients who were
given a special treatment to recover their hearing back in the late nineties.
Well, the treatment worked - a little too well, and the patients ended up with
the ability to hear people's thoughts - but only one of the fifteen original patients
survived. The film explores the survivor's life after her treatment, and her attempts
to escape from the government cover-up that seeks to eliminate her entire existence. This
movie reminded me a lot of a comic book super hero movie, very much like the Bruce
Willis starrer UNBREAKABLE, and there's enough material here for the movie to
act as a TV pilot for a possibly really good series, or generate a couple of sequels.
Like all super-heroes, our main character has special powers that she has inherited
from a bodged treatment, and uses them to the government's advantage (solving
crimes, predicting terrorist attacks etc.). There really is a lot of potential
and I really got into the plot of the flick - and I'm not a big sci-fi fan! The
fact that this film is based on real events is a little intriguing, if a little
unbelievable, but really this movie is pure sci-fi and hugely original. I love
that the movie focusses more on the individual survivor rather than bombarding
us with political comment. For
a largely unknown cast (bar Star Trek faves George Takei and John De Lancie who
we all know and love), the acting is top notch and the story moves at a very good
pace once you get into it. The lead, played by Lucy Jenner carries the movie well,
and could be one to look out for in the future. She's wonderfully attractive too. The
only problem that I had with the movie was the last few minutes where we are treated
to a look into the future for he main characters. There was quite a good place
to end it a couple of scenes previous, and the whole pregnancy/ government stuff
at the end were a little unnecessary. The
DVD comes complete with a commentary from writer/ producer/ director Andrew Bakalar,
who gives us a great little insight into the production. There's also a short
behind-the-scenes featurette and theatrical trailer to round off proceedings too.
A good little package. All
in all EAVESDROPPER was a nice surprise and a film I actually really quite enjoyed.
It's set up, as I said, is an unlikely super-hero story, and if films like UNBREAKABLE
and the like floated your boat, you're not going to go too far wrong here. A well
paced, electric and hugely original treat. Recommended. GRADE:
B- Paul
Heath
| 
