This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

"The Monitor" tells the story of a mother and her son, who fled the violent father into a new identity. When the mother buys a baby phone for her son, she starts to become the witness of alarming dialogues between an adult man and a child, that don't seem to originate in her flat. More and more, the tides are turning against her and she faces some serious decisions.The movie was beautifully produced. You can see that some time and effort have been spent on the atmosphere of the film, which is dark and slow and helps to create an environment in which you could imagine something serious happen every single moment. The general story does the rest to keep you watching and guessing what will happen next. The film keeps getting more mysterious the longer you watch. Unfortunately, the end kind of destroyed this one for me. If you really rethink everything that happened, there are just so many things that don't make any sense at all or are just blank unbelievable that for me it felt more like Fight Club gone wrong. That's sad because I still see a lot of potential within the story and I think that you could have done a lot more with it.All in all this is a movie packed with tension. If you're not focused on the end but more on the way, this could be a movie you can have a lot of fun with actually.

There have been some discussions about the movie (and certain elements of it) and how some people look at them and what they see. Of course there is also the "Stupid movie" category some do put it in. And I don't blame those people, because apart from the fact, that we all have different tastes, the movie itself does really challenge most viewers with its interpretation of the story.There are quite a lot of things that will not be answered by the movie. You will have to explain those things to yourself or leave it be. Whatever your choice, the movie will not tell you you're wrong. It's actually pretty clever and one might expect a Damon Lindelof remake/script emerging anytime soon (if it doesn't already exist). Thinking about it (even though I don't like the way our main actress is portrayed), makes me like the movie even more ...

I saw this film as part of the Imagine film festival (SF/fantasy/horror) Amsterdam 2012. The festival website labeled it as "horror", but I rather concur with the mixed "horror/thriller" label we see on IMDb. We cannot help feeling sympathy with the mother (Anna) and her son (Anders), just having moved to a hiding place where her husband resp. his father cannot find them. We are told this is because of prior domestic violence towards the son. It is the main reason for buying and installing a baby monitor in the son's bedroom. Since he is 11, he would not need such supervision in normal circumstances.Apart from that, we see what initially looks like a sub-plot, in the form of a flirtation with the salesman (Helge) in the home electronics shop where the baby monitor is bought. The relationship strengthens later on when Anna hears alarming sounds out of the newly installed device, and seeks his advice as it is not coming from Anders' room. Helge explains that the signal can be picked up from a similar device in the neighborhood. Given that Helge is the only one taking her story seriously, and Anna feels all alone with her situation, it can be no surprise that she asks for his help. And Helge, also feeling alone, is very eager to offer some assistance.Anna stumbles on a nearby lake, where she observes disturbing things happening on the opposite side. What she sees, obviously reminds her of her own reasons to run away from her husband. After rushing through the woods to find the place where it happened, there are no visible traces of something out of the ordinary. On later occasions Anna completely fails to find the lake again, as if it never existed in the first place. We are as confused as Anna is, since several landmarks we saw before along the path to the lake, are still on their original spot and look undisturbed.All in all, though a few scenes could be improved by shortening some parts, I saw an entertaining mix of what was real and what only existed in Anna's mind. After a while we think we are sure what's real and what's not, given what is presented to us by the scenario writers. Acting is very good, so we are easily convinced by what we see.However, one of the final scenes shows aforementioned lake again, after we saw with our own eyes that Anna could not find it anymore. It unexpectedly confronts us with a completely different view on the matter (no details, to prevent spoilers). In hindsight, I could remember no pointers that we may have been misled by what we had seen on screen. In other words, this was really a surprise for me, but of course, I may have missed some clues. Yet I think this should not happen in a "thriller" type of film. Some cleverly planted clues with hints that there might be more to it than what we saw, certainly would have improved our viewer experience.

This is the tag-line of much awaited new film from Pål Sletaune (behind the great films "Naboer", "Amatørene" and "Budbringeren") is starring Noomi Rapace and Kristoffer Joner. Seven years since "naboer" or in English "next door", we get a film with similar ideas - a look into disturbed or distorted minds.Single mother Anna moves with her 8 year old son to a big flat with secret address outside Oslo to get away from her violent husband. Anna is scared stiff that they will be found, and is under heavy watch by a couple of child care workers. She get's the idea of buying a baby call so that her son doesn't have to sleep in her bed, only to find that the baby call picks up another troubled child somewhere in the flat. Anna is really on the edge, and maybe her imagination is playing her as well!?This psychological thriller goes under your skin in the sympathy for Anna and the other troubled minds in this film. You want her to relax, but still understand how difficult it is when you trust no one.Really great play by Rapace. She gets under your skin. The film is slow paced in a couple of periods, only to speed up at times, just as real life would be in such a situation. The film is not like you think it will be, so this is not your standard thriller. I still think I'd like another ending to this, though maybe not happy...Well Sletaune can put another great film under his belt. Always worthwhile and interesting to get sucked into his stories. Well done!