A Disappointing Continuation

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

BY RYAN C. SHOWERSThe cinematic year has a specific formula it follows in order for films to extract the biggest financial profit possible or to compete in the winter award season. Summers are an optimal time to release studio blockbusters, in particular superhero adaptations, and the fall through winter is dominated by critically extolled projects, hunting for prestigious industry prizes. During the dawn of a new year, the movie theater is a desolate place to spend your time and money. Until 2015 straps on its brawny filmmaking gear, a prolific amount of entertaining movies will not be found at the cinema. But there are always alternatives. One project that skipped a theatrical run that is newly available via Amazon Instant Video or On Demand is "Veronika Decides to Die," something that could fill your need for a compelling, artful piece of film."Veronika Decides to Die" tells a story of redemption in a mercilessly raw way, through the eyes of Veronika Deklava, a young woman living in New York City. Veronika is talented, attractive, financially stable, and has parents who love her, yet after opening the film with a cynical view on a life that may lie ahead of her, she decides to overdose on sleeping pills with clear attempts of killing herself. Fate undercuts Veronika's plans when she wakes up strapped to a hospital bed days after her attempt at taking her own life. Dr. Blake greets Veronika, welcoming her to Villette, a privately funded psychiatric facility. He informs her that her suicide attempt was not completely unsuccessful: Her heart is not able to withstand long-term survival, and it will stop beating within the next week.The events behind the film's release are disheartening, especially after seeing the substance and quality "Veronika Decides to Die" brings to the table. It was developed based on Paulo Coelho's revered novel, but was updated to be more accessible to American audiences. The independently financed "Veronika Decides to Die" was released in many European countries in 2009 and 2010, but unfortunately never found theatrical distribution in the United States. You probably have never heard of "Veronika Decides to Die," but accredit that to a bizarre mishap in the system, not any lapse in the film's quality."Veronika Decides to Die" was not made with the nuts and bolts of bigger-budgeted projects; therefore it moves in a slower velocity, which effectively unites the cinematic version of the fable more innately with the internally detailed novel. Director Emily Young envisions the film differently than had it been directed by a man; there's a powerful sense of poetry rooted in this tale because of the way Young merges the shots together, specifically with help from the cinematographer and composer. Individually, their efforts may not look formidable, but together their simple intentions assemble something beautiful.After the legendary success of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Sarah Michelle Gellar shifted gears in her career for several years, perusing smaller films that she felt more passionate about. "Veronika Decides to Die" was the last of Gellar's several attempts to break free as a more sophisticated actress, and it's an incredible acting performance that allows her to reconstruct herself as an artist. Affecting, psychological, and authentic, this is the kind of performance that would reconfigure the way Gellar is viewed in the industry.Gracefully undertaking the life-affirming messages and potent themes that Coehlo expressed in his 1998 novel, the film asks us questions about life, the way we see ourselves, and the limits we often set which often impede on our happiness. The screenplay by Larry Gross makes this story's transition from page to screen smooth and cogent. It will capture you from the grimmer introductory scenes to the uplifting climax.It is available through Amazon, Amazon Instant Video, and Video On Demand.* * * * / * * * *Grade: A

Everyone has different perception and here is mine. I wouldn't say that this movie was very bad or boring. It was not believable in my opinion. If you decide to commit suicide in your own home, you make sure the doors are locked and nobody is going to visit you in the next few days. In this film she did not even pass out before someone was already banging on her door and how did they come in? Let alone how did they find out? From the email she sent in response to an advertisement? From that on things were becoming even less realistic. A nut house that looks like a retreat for super rich. Not sure why her parents were even brought into the story. The sudden transformation from hating life to loving it was unsubstantiated. A guy? A silent guy who was sitting on a tree suddenly made her realize that life is worth living? Quite a stretch after she was cynical about guys and marriage and family life in general. The performances were okay. I did not watch any of her other movies prior to this one simply because they are not the movies I watch.The final scenes, after the escape, were dull, pretentious and unrealistic. This film just confirmed that I stick to foreign movies, which almost never disappoint me. Force Majeure is the latest one I enjoyed.

English screenwriter and director Emily Young's second feature film which was written by American screenwriter, producer and director Larry Cross and screenwriter Roberta Hanley, is an adaptation of a novel from 1998 by Brazillian author, lyricist and musician Paulo Coehlo. It was shot on location in New York, USA and is an American production which was produced by producers Sriram P. Das, Jonathan Bross and Chris Hanley. It tells the story about a woman named Veronika Deklava who after having attempted to take her one life ends up in a coma and wakes up two weeks later at a psychiatric facility called Vilette where she is told by doctors that she has an incurable aneurism in the heart.Finely and subtly directed by British filmmaker Emily Young, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated by the main character and from multiple viewpoints, draws a heartrending portrayal of a woman in some kind of existentialistic crises who learns that she will die and that death might occur at any given moment. While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions, fine production design by production designer John Nyomarkay and cinematography by cinematographer Seamus Tierney, this narrative-driven story about a newly committed patient who begins changing her pessimistic views on life after talking to a psychiatrist named Alex Blake, depicts some empathic studies of character and contains a timely score by English composer Murray Gold.This quiet, at times atmospheric and modestly romantic drama which is set mostly at a privately funded institution near the Hudson River in New York where an assistant account executive becomes more aware of the greatness in living when she befriends a young man who has stopped speaking, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, endearing characters, witty use of music and the commendable acting performances by American actresses Sarah Michelle Gellar, Melissa Leo, Erika Christensen, American actor Jonathan Tucker and English actor David Thewlis. A reflective, humane and life-affirming character piece from the late 2000s.

"All healthy men have thought of their own suicide." – Albert Camus"Veronika Decides to Die" stars actress Sarah Michelle Gellar as Veronika, a young woman who decides to die. Why does she decide to die? Because life, she thinks, sucks. Why does she eventually opt not to commit suicide? Because life, she realizes, is a gift worth living.Gellar turns in a very good performance, but the film's script is condescending. It does not trivialize suicide – director Emily Young treats Veronika's pain with sympathy – but trivializes the existential questions which provoked Veronika's turmoil. Namely, what constitutes a life worth living? Isn't Veronika's solution (sex with a hunky guy) just a temporary biological solution to a metaphysical problem? How does Veronika rationalize participating in a culture which she views as being immoral and rife with hypocrisy? If life's a gift, why can't it be refunded? Why is suicide seen as an individual problem and not a valid response to a social problem? Why is it the individual's responsibility to adapt and not society's responsibility to change? Ultimately, films like this deny any possibility of a social causation of mental illness, a stance which allows multinational pharmaceutical companies to peddle drugs which often trap their subjects in a cycle very similar to that which instigates their mental "illness" (in the film Veronika is not ill, but simply hyper aware). This myth of mental illness encourages us, moreover, to believe in its logical corollary: that social intercourse would be harmonious, satisfying, and the secure basis of a "good life" were it not for the disrupting influences of mental illness or "psychopathology." 7/10 – Worth one viewing.