The Eternal

Beautiful looking and sedately handled, but immensely muddled independent art house horror feature by writer / director Michael Almereyda. Kind of similar in style to his film "Najda" four years earlier, which I don't think so highly of (other than the excellent soundtrack that accompanied it). Nora and Jim (who are alcoholics) along with their son leave America and head to Ireland to visit Nora's grandmother. Despite the advice of their doctor not to go, as Nora one night with Jim got on the drink and she ended up falling down some stairs leaving her with a minor concussion. When getting there, she meets her uncle where he takes her down the basement to show her a decomposed body which he believes to a centuries old druid witch. Could this be the connections to the headaches and visions plaguing Nora's mind, as she'll find out when the witch is revived. "Trance" is a touch better, but still engulfed by similar problems and nonetheless keeps the same positives. Again this atypically brooding fable is not for everyone, but it managed to hold my attention and I found the direction less concerned with its distracting artsy mechanics (than say in "Nadja")… although they're still evident. There are some delirious images, consisting of jaded visions rocking the main protagonist's mind. These stylised passages hold a certain arresting, if haunting charge. However this is when it's not in its nauseating head spin of mangled ideas. While the plot has a slight structure and little narrative drive, it's stretched out by its unfocused fabricated episodic developments with its dry, upfront and moody trimmings. Every one of these characters / including the witch / monster of the piece are damaged, but still humane vessels in the search of something to make them complete. Secrets are buried, to only be awoken. It's messy and meanders, but strangely alluring like caught in a drunken, abstract state. I put it down to the performances. A breathtaking Alison Elliot (in dual roles) and narky Jared Harris acquit themselves to their lead roles. Lois Smith holds strong. Christopher Walken looking rather weary goes about things in a sober, but underlining twisted manner. Also Jason Millar's inclusion is merely a throwaway cameo with an amusing line. Almereyda's slickly calculative direction is switched on, making good use of the lush backdrop consisting of a stunning beach line and the Gothic interiors of mansion that the enclosed action mostly takes place in. Intimate photography is sharply engineered and well-intended. The brilliant soundtrack is notable with it tunes (that are perfect choices), and the music score is clinically alienating but whimsical in flight.

I LOVED this movie. It was intense and moody and very deep. The acting was out of this world and the cinematography,beyond description. This is a movie that needs to be absorbed, not just watched between runs to the kitchen. Don't expect flash and fire, video style. It will stay with you for a long time. The soundtrack is wonderful too by the way.

I always found the movie vague, as you can read in an earlier comment on the movie, although this has changed recently because I decided to watch it again for a report I had to make for religion class (I recommend you to also watch this movie if you need to make a similar report). To agree with me on this one, you must've seen this movie several times. "Trance" is, as a matter of fact, a perfect Celtic labyrinth. It does not only provide much information about what we know of the Celtic religion; it also shows the practical side of the Celtic forces. The movie has been built up as a perfect information-providing movie and could undoubtfully be called a labyrinth. A real good source if you want to know more about the Celtic religion. Believe me, once you've discovered the labyrinth structure hidden in the movie, you'll find the movie a lot less vague.

This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. However, the little slave girl, Alice and Jared Harris imitating Christopher Walken is what makes this movie entertaining. Alice's smoking, drinking and uncanny way of showing up when her name is called is strange and interesting. I have to applaud Jared for his Christopher Walken imitation, and Christopher Walken for allowing this to be in the movie.

This is an unusual horror movie that won't be to everyones' tastes, though I think it's probably more accessible than the same director's unusual vampire movie Nadja. Nora and Jim travel to Ireland, so that their young son can meet the mother's ailing grandmother. Nora's uncle is caring for her, with the help of a wise young girl named Alice that he has adopted. The uncle is decidedly strange (that he's played by Christopher Walken should be a clue), and has an obsession with a mummy in the basement. The mummy is an Iron Age Druid witch who had been preserved in a peat bog. Nora and Jim are very much in love, and love alcohol; they're a little bit like Nick and Nora Charles of The Thin Man series. Nora's been having blackouts and visions that are possibly unrelated to her drinking, but she is supposed to quit drinking anyway. Nora begins to wish she hadn't returned home to Ireland. Among the really strong suits of the film are the excellent cinematography and locations. They can be chillingly beautiful at times, as is the soundtrack. It has a great song by Cat Power, "Rockets," which is on at least a couple of her albums. I first learned of her from this movie, and am very glad I did. It has a great song by Varnaline, "Sweet Life" (incidentally, available in Real Audio form on their official website), which plays on the jukebox at the Irish pub. It has a great song by Episonic, "My Head Becomes the Sky," which plays over the end credits. The score is also quite effective.

This movie is more deceiving than ever, using a suspenseful looking actor like Walken to play in this piece of junk made it look like he had nothing better to do than play a boring role like this one! And the fact that the movie was supposed to be about some witch and you really don't see that until almost the end of the movie but meanwhile you have to sit and watch this boring film while it gets, or tries to get to the meaning of the point and you have to go through this whole trail of boring actors and actresses thinking the whole time of how you passed off another movie and decided on this one and how you have just waisted your money just makes the whole point of time useless sitting there. I'd rather watch cartoons for goodness sakes. Leave this one alone,please!

Upon concluding my viewing of "Trance," or "The Eternal," or whatever the producers are calling this film, I wondered to myself, "Out of all of the bad movies I could have seen, couldn't I have at least seen one that was entertaining?" Even if a film is not well made in terms of acting, directing, writing, or what have you, it can at least be fun, and therefore worthwhile. But not only is this film bad in artistic value, it's incredibly boring. For a plot of such thinness, it moves awfully slowly, with little dramatic tension. At the very least, in a low-brow attempt at entertainment, the deaths of the characters could have been cool and/or gory, but the creators of this dreck failed in that department as well. What does this movie have going for it? Pretty much nothing, unless you get entertainment out of watching Christopher Walken, who is capable of being brilliant, put so little effort into his acting that he falls into self-parody mode (WHY did he decide to do this film anyway?). I give this film 3/10, because, God help us, there actually have been worse movies made before.

Here we have a great horror movie, presented in a very down-to-earth manner. Reminds me of classic English movies, combined with excellent acting skills of Christopher Walken, and a story line that keeps your ass tight on a sofa till the dramatic end. For people who don't necessarily need fancy special effects, and million dollar explosions to enjoy a good movie with an idea!

A good cast and they do their best with what they're given, but the story makes no sense, the characters' actions are inexplicable, and there are too many moments of unintentional humor, as when a man is killed by being pierced with pieces of a phonograph record or when they get the witch drunk to a hip hop beat and then hit her over the head with a bottle and she grabs her hostage and pouts off. The scene when the two witch and her victim (played by the same actress) are in the house together sets up like a 3 Stooges routine, and the plot begs the question: if the witch wants to possess this other woman's soul, why doesn't she just do it instead of leading these people on this elaborate chase? Not to be missed is Christopher Walkin's eyeglasses and his automotive explanation of the afterlife (paraphrased): "The ancient Egyptianas - they wee materialists. They expected the body to last through eternity, like a used car that you souped up. But the Druids, they knew you couldn't drive in the afterlife. You had to get out and walk." Huh? The ending is absolutely indecipherable. Seems like they just ran out of film.

For the art house crowd comes this critically panned film never released theatrically in the U.S. `Nadja' director Michael Almareyda comes up with his skewed version of The Mummy, complete with hip characters, fun surprises, a great alternate music soundtrack, Christopher Walken doing a Irish accent but otherwise being his quirky old self, brilliant cinematography from Jim Denault and a flair for the unexpected. The perfectly enjoyable heroes are Allison Elliott and Jared Harris, as a cheerfully drunken couple going to Ireland to dry out. The movie acknowledges the "alcoholic" problem by having them not deal with it or call attention to it, and it's to the movie's credit that it's never an "issue" or makes them into completely awful or unbelievably irresponsible parents (they're just normally irresponsible, like most parents.) * * * for The Eternal, an imperfect gem.