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by R.J. Carter Published: May 10, 2007
Colin Hanks plays Doug, a seemingly shy and nervous young man, who spies Amy (Ana Claudia Talancón, "The Virgin of Juarez") crying alone in a park. Marking her as vulnerable, he follows her, each step marked by the camcorder lens barely peeking through the side of his duffel bag. He observes and records her comings and goings, learning her patterns, before going into an electronics store to purchase video surveillance equipment -- ostensibly to watch a suspicious nanny, Doug tells the store owner. He also asks if he needs a license for any of the equipment, only to be told that everything is perfectly legal (which is the moral of the entire film, actually -- the ease of which someone could electronically spy on you for relatively little cost.) Using the locksmithing equipment (handily available at the same store, just one display case over), Doug enters Amy's apartment and installs his bugs, taking the time to examine her credit card statements, photographs, and other personal items. He learns this way that she's recently come off a breakup from a serious relationship, something he can use to his advantage when approaching her later. The cameras in place, Doug begins watching Amy at a remote location. Every personal, intimate moment is seen, including some full-frontal shower scenes and a pivotal plot-point session of midnight loneliness involving a hairbrush handle. This is also the first place where the believability of the film begins to falter. Because of Nicholas' insistence on the style of filming, the only way we get to see Doug spying on Amy is because Doug is also spying on himself spying on Amy -- which seems to be the sort of evidence a stalker would normally not want to leave behind. Outside Amy's apartment, Doug begins to slowly make his move to approach her. He lets her see him holding videos he knows she's rented recently. He enjoys the same music he knows she listens to. They begin to bump into each other regularly at a nearby coffee shop, and Doug's plan seems to be working just fine. Amy tells her best friend Jen (Jordana Spiro, My Guys) about Doug, and Jen is enthusiastic that Amy get to know him. Things begin to go off track for Doug, however, when one of Amy's co-workers calls her up and asks her out -- and she accepts. He tries to out-do his competition with better offers, only to be blown off -- and he knows he's being blown off with excuses, which only aggravates him further. Watching Amy and learning Amy is now no longer enough. He has to control Amy. Entering her apartment again, he injects her milk with an agent to make her vomitously ill. He treats her bed linens with something to make her break out in hives. He enters her car and steals her company laptop, intentionally ensuring Amy get fired from her job, and then hobbles her at home with a trap of broken glass.
As I've mentioned, the places where things fall apart for me are those that involve Doug directly. He literally carries his camera everywhere, and while it works when he's surveilling Amy, it doesn't seem as though he would tape himself confronting Jen or watching his monitors. However, I have to give definite props to the editing department for an excellent job of splicing the video together into a nearly seamless and cohesive storyline. Most of the video quality from the cameras was so good, in fact, that you could forget that it was hidden, and one wonders if the editors didn't insert the occasional bursts of static intentionally to remind the viewer of their voyeuristic intrusion. I also have to say that I did not see the ending coming (the alternate ending in the bonus features matched the one in my mind.) Bonus features on this disc include an audio commentary track with writer/director Nicholas. There are also three deleted scenes with optional commentary, as well as the aforementioned alternate ending. The TV spot trailer is thrown in, as is a nearly two minute PSA, "Stalker Facts", which is a still shot of Amy seen through the night vision lens while factoids about stalkers float over the image. Audio is in English only, with optional subtitles in English and Spanish. Previews on this disc include "Penelope" and "The Aura". |
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