Movie review: Elsewhere

When Sarah’s friend Jillian goes missing she realizes there is something wrong in her small town and that young girls seem to disappear frequently. Trying to follow a path of strange clues with the help of her friend Jasper, they struggle to understand what has happened to Jillian.

Anna Kendrick (Sarah), Paul Wesley (Billy), Tania Raymonde (Jillian), Chuck Carter (Jasper), Olivia York (Darla Tod), Jon Gries (Mr. Tod).

This one kicks off with quite a bit of character development that almost lasts too long. There is some excitement thrown in up front and fortunately it is just enough to keep things moving. Once the plot development starts things get much more interesting and the movie becomes quite enjoyable despite the teen thriller type theme. The plot was good but seemed simplistic to me as I had narrowed down the list of suspects to two pretty early on in the film, though it was still quite entertaining.

Acting by Kendrick, Wesley, Carter, York and Gries was much better than expected particularly considering several of them are rather inexperienced. Raymonde was the biggest disappointment with barely credible acting in a role that was completely necessary to the film. Once she was out of things the acting quality improved dramatically.

Sets, background, dialogue and camera work were all nicely done. More so considering this is an independent film with the quality of a studio production. I didn’t expect much from this film and was nicely surprised at the quality of most every element. Nothing earth-shattering to be had but still, a quality well done thriller.

Some sexual content, drug and alcohol use, foul language, and violence so save this one for older teens and above.

Released: 2008
Reviewed: 2.23.16
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller, Crime Thriller, Mystery

copyright ©2016 Dave Riedel