DorothyMills

Dorothy Mills (2008)

The movie opens on a small isolated island off of the Irish coast. A young girl named Dorothy attacks and injures the small child that she was babysitting, so a psychiatrist named Jane is sent to examine her on behalf of the courts. Not long after arriving on the island Jane is forced off the road and nearly drowns in her car by a couple of speeding car full of teens racing down the narrow road. Only no one on the small island recognizes the description of the teenagers or the cars. If that weren’t enough the locals aren’t too keen on an outsider showing up on the island and taking one of their own away, even if she is accused of a crime. The longer Jane stays on the island the stranger things get. Soon she realizes the locals are using Dorothy for some very strange things and that the supposed non-existent teenagers seem to be following her around the island. If that weren’t enough it seems that Dorothy is suffering form multiple personalities, some of whom are very angry.

This is an interesting movie that I really liked in some ways, but also has major flaws. The movie starts off right away with a great sense of atmosphere and foreboding. There is absolutely something going on with Dorothy, who has a very creepy presence right away. But after a very interesting first few minutes the movie slows down to a crawl. While I was never bored or lost interest in the story, the pacing is just dreadful. There are long extended shots of the countryside and the director seems to have had an obsession of shorts with reaction shots from the cast. This just kills any chance the movie had of decent pacing. There is also far too much time spent establishing that the locals distaste for the psychiatrist and what she represents as an outsider. This is even more frustrating when the movie vaguely hints around some religious issues and twists that were far more interesting than the typical outsider in a small town story. Nothing ever really comes of it, which is odd. Finally without giving any spoilers away there are a couple of twists to the movie that are sort of clever, but very predictable. Dorothy Mills would have fit in rather nicely in the tidal wave of supernatural movies with a twist that flooded the market after the success of the Sixth Sense. So now that I’ve been critical of the movie, I will say it is well executed and picks up the pace nicely in the last 30 or so minutes. It even finishes with a satisfying, but sort of strange ending.

One thing I can’t and won’t question here is the cast. Carice van Houten is wonderful as Jane and is very convincing in the role. She pulls of one scene in particular where having finally had it with the locals she loses it on them and says what most of us would in similar situations. I can’t explain why I like the scene so much, but it just seems so natural and realistic. The other performance that I wanted to mention is that of Jenn Murray in the title role of Dorothy. It wasn’t until about ¾ of the way thru the movie that I just really started appreciating how great she was. Watching how she not only changes her body language, but her control of dialect and dialogue as she goes from personality to personality is crazy good. This is her only film credit to date, but I will be shocked if we don’t see her popping up in more projects.

This is a very low budget movie without any special effects to speak of. That said the camera work and lighting are nicely done and capture the beauty of the setting. The exterior shots are gloomy and stunning at the same time, while the interiors of the homes are very creepy and depressing. To their credit most of the atmosphere of the film is achieved by this great work behind the camera.

In the end there are things to like about this movie. But the great performances and interesting story are really hurt by the glacial pacing. Still if you are a fan of these sorts of films then this might be worth a rental. Though I can’t imagine this is the sort of movie that anyone would revisit.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer