This is How Movies Should Be Made

Awesome Movie

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Flawed but interesting black comedy about cults and deprogramming. The film starts out overtly comedic about a down on his luck author and cult expert on a very low rent book tour. On this darkly funny and depressing book tour he's approached by a couple who want his help rescuing their daughter form a cult. Their daughter, an excellent Mary Elizabeth Winstead, is then held captive in a a hotel room with the cult expert for a character duel along the lines of "Death and the Maiden" or "Oleanna," where interesting power dynamics emerge between the two. Leland Orser, who's on my list of great one-scene-performances for his one scene in "Seven" as the lust victim in the massage parlor, gives a great performance here as the troubled cult expert, though it's really Winstead who steals the film. While the script doesn't seem to gel as a whole and the end in particular seemed a bit contrived, the performances make this one worth watching.

I have to declare an interest : i chose the film on the basis it starred Mary Elizabeth Winstead whom i'd watched for the first and only time in 10 Cloverfield Lane. I was less interested in the subject matter. However, as the film developed i became engrossed. Very strong performances and a sharp script combine to drive the story forward. As in Cloverfield Winstead gives a restrained and on this occasion slightly sinister performance while Leland Orser's depiction of desperate penury is utterly convincing and motors the film on. The end also convinces and might have been frankly ridiculous in the hands of a less skilled director and less talented actors. It's a neat, riveting little film for a Comtemplative Tuesday night in.

Who will like this movie? Well all those who can remember and liked the Rod Serling 1960s TV series "The Twilight Zone".Your traveling thru another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.The plod of the Twilight Zone series revolved around an ordinary Joe or Jane and a situation that took them to somewhere out of normal. In Faults its "Ansel" played by Leland Orser a 50s writer/expert on cult control. He is a battler who is down on luck and this is his story.Set in the 1970s it sets the scene of awkward nativity early, but it is wonderfully acted and tightly scripted and most watchers who can go with the flow will be anxious to see where this story is going. So do NOT read to many reviews which will spoil this surprise ending.It is a lovely blend of dark humor, retro personalities, intelligent dialogue. A classic in my book. If you have not seen The Twilight Zone then watch this, its better.

I don't know why, but the cults are becoming a fashionable trend in contemporary cinema. In the last 5 years, we have been watching films such as Martha Marcy May Marlene, Red State, Sound of My Voice and The Sacrament, whose focuses vary considerably, but they all examine the disturbing phenomenon of brainwashing, and the apparent ease with which some people let themselves be dominated by charismatic leaders who promise some kind of spiritual salvation when, in fact, they only seek their own benefit. The film Faults presents a very interesting perspective, moving away from the "commune" and the specific details of the cult, in order to focus into the regenerative process of lost identity. And, if that were not enough, it also makes character studies about the victim and the analyst, gradually revealing their particular psychologies and the internal travel which took them to the struggle of wills which hold big part of the movie. Faults presents us a "hero" defeated by life... something like the classic alcoholic detective from various cop films, or the priest without faith who is so common in horror cinema, but even more down at heel (I point out the fact that Faults doesn't belong to either of those genres). This tortuous main character complicates the situation more, and makes a Faults a subtle and fascinating thriller, in which not only the victim's future is in danger, but also her redeemer's. The screenplay of Faults shines because of its precision and sagacity, keeping us in suspense during the whole film, until leading to a satisfactory ending. And then, we have the excellent performances, starting by Leland Orser as the main character. Orser is one of those actors whose names we don't know, even though we immediately recognize their faces when we see them in a film or TV series. I revised his filmography, and I confirmed the fact I had seen him in many movies, without specifically remembering him in any of them. Faults will undoubtedly rectify that situation, and I estimate that his extraordinary work as a "loser" seeking redemption will get him out of that limbo of character actors who always make their mission but go unnoticed. Mary Elizabeth Winstead also brings a perfect performance as the victim of the cult; she's modulated in her role, but she never loses spontaneity or passion. The premise of Faults might sound similar to the one of the previously mentioned Martha Marcy May Marlene, but its levels of meaning transcend the victim's mentality and offer more ambitious and interesting reflections about human condition and its virtue/fault of seeking spiritual fulfillment, even for the sake of the own identity. The screenplay of Faults might occasionally make a few small traps, but that didn't avoid me from liking it very much, and I definitely recommend it as a hypnotic and audacious thriller, specially to those ones who find the concept and existence of "cults" equally intriguing.