Unspeakable
Unspeakable
R | 01 December 2003 (USA)
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Despite vocal objections from Warden Blakely, prison psychologist Diana Purlow journeys deep inside the mind of serial killer Jesse Mowat in a desperate attempt to reveal the source of his psychotic tendencies.

Reviews
Marketic

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

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ScoobyMint

Disappointment for a huge fan!

KnotStronger

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

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Myron Clemons

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

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Claudio Carvalho

The scientist Diana Purlow (Dina Meyer) is performing experiments with the mind of criminals sentenced to death in the prison of the sadistic warden Earl Blakely (Dennis Hopper). She tests an apparatus she developed and capable of read minds in a man that claims to be innocent of a murder, but she is not able to convince her former lover and Governor (Jeff Fahey) to call off the execution. When the serial killer Jesse Mowatt (Pavan Grover) is arrested and sentenced to death, she convinces the warden to submit Jesse to her experiment. While working with the murderer, Diana faces pure evil in its essence."Unspeakable" is an intriguing story with gore and supernatural elements that unfortunately has a terrible conclusion. In the last five minutes, it is disclosed the character "Alicia", without any previous reference along the story, and I honestly did not understand why Jesse wanted Diana to kill him. For me, this conclusion is absolutely senseless. Further, there is a complete lack of explanation why Jesse had such abilities. Pavan Grover in the role of a diabolic serial killer pays homage to Harry Powell, the serial killer performed by Robert Mitchum in 1955 "The Night of the Hunter", with the words "Love" and "Hate" tattooed in his fingers. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "O Poder da Mente" ("The Power of the Mind")

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A_Roode

Valuable life lesson: You can't always judge a book by its cover. Usually that means beautiful things may be hidden by a ugly exterior. In the case of 'Unspeakable' it is the exact opposite. It actually hurts to write the following review because it pretty much admits I'm a superficial person who was suckered into watching a movie that was stashed in the box and write-up of a much more interesting looking film.'Unspeakable' is a very nearly perfect storm of bad movie-making. Hampered by any number of problems, one of the worst is a ham-handed anti-capital punishment message that tries to put a human face on the issue. The problem is that it has a lot of competition and 'Unspeakable' does not stand up very well to it. In fact, it doesn't stand up well in a light breeze. Granted many movies aren't going to compare favourably to 'The Green Mile,' but in 'The Green Mile' similar themes are dealt with. Prisoners in 'The Green Mile' are treated compassionately and it becomes deeply effective in decrying capital punishment through the actions of a sadistically incompetent guard. In comparison, every guard in 'Unspeakable' is both sadistic and incompetent. The problem is that the film seems to believe that if one mean guard is good, 100 mean guards will be great. This, I assure you, isn't the case. If you were going for satire it might work. The tragedy (for the film makers -- and comedy for us) is that it takes itself extremely seriously and begins to implode at every opening.Pavan Grover wrote the screenplay and there are glimpses of good ideas. There is an unfriendly look at religion, the nature of good and evil, the capacity for cruelty and the psychological and philosophical motivations for it. Finding these blurred and hidden themes though isn't worth the effort. There are clever aphorisms scattered like breadcrumbs for Hansel and Gretel but they don't lead anywhere.I already mentioned 'The Green Mile' and that it is one of at least three superior films that 'Unspeakable' unsuccessfully compares itself to. From 'The Night of the Hunter' comes the tattooed knuckles of love and hate as well as an attempt at the cool charisma and menace of Robert Mitchum. From 'The Silence of the Lambs' there comes a psychiatrist and serial killer playing an information game.There are many failures that contribute to 'Unspeakable' and its near total collapse. The dialogue is comically horrendous. The music sounds like the theme song for clowns at a carnival and it plays with full comic effect. As weak as the Grover driven script is, the Grover driven performance is even worse. He's dreadful and it spreads through the rest of the cast like a virus. The director needs to take some of the blame for his failure to reign in the actors and the script (although when your lead actor is also the writer and the producer ...). It is a vision less and clunky mess. The only bright light is Lance Henrickson. No matter how bad the film, he always approaches it with stoic and reliable professionalism. I'm amazed he didn't get swept up like Dennis Hopper and Jeff Fahey in the sea of bad things. Fahey turns in at best a bemused performance and is clearly remembering the good old days.There was an exchange of dialogue near the end of the film between Henrickson and Meyer.H: "You were really fascinated by him weren't you?" M: "Yeah, grotesquely fascinated. I probably could have studied him for years." H : "Yeah, but at what cost to your psyche?"That's really what 'Unspeakable' is all about. Yeah, you could watch it. But at what cost to your psyche?Lance Henrickson is far too good for a movie like this. Dennis Hopper is too good for a movie like this. Dina Meyer is too good for a movie like this. Jeff Fahey, I repeat, Jeff Fahey is too good for a movie like this. And let's be honest: you and I are too good for this. Life is too short. Go hug your kids and promise to protect them from all the bad things in the world. Start with 'Unspeakable' and you could do a lot worse. Take my word for it and avoid this dog at all costs.

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ben_wahlberg

I don't understand what the point of making this movie was. Every part was drug out until it got annoying and boring. Honestly do not even think about renting because of Dennis Hopper's reputation. I know the man can act and he is very good at it, but this movie almost killed him. Honestly he was horrible at being a mean cop and it was overall just annoying. Not to mention Grover's part in the move. This was his big first acting appearance and it was pathetic. The man made a good plot for the movie but when it came down to actors and doing it....he was way in over his head. So all I'm saying is if that you really want to test it, if you really want to see how Bad Dennie Hoppper can be, then go ahead. I warned you.

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azila

I saw this movie this noon, and a few, if not many questions, popped out of me. the tag line of this movie was something like "nothing can ever silence the true evil." So it is implied that Jesse Mowatt was the true evil. Then how about the warden? He was something of a sadist and an evil, wasn't he? In the scene where Jesse controlled the warden with his will power and made him commit suicide, it is like indicating that the warden deserved it. if the warden really do, then Jesse Mowatt was doing something good, and it is not up to a "true evil" to do something good, if the story wanted to make a clear story.Well, what can I say? It is not a impressive movie, even with all its scenes obviously aiming to create sensations, like a worm in the bloody brain, so on. It is a movie that after seeing it , no one would be thinking about it any more, like plain water, after you drink it, you only remember that you drank it, but with no memory of how.besides, the characters were left unexplored. how big an influence had Mowatt's father left on him? how did Mowatt change from a human to a demon? we were told but not showed. one credit though, the acting was great.

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