Support Shadows: Buy a Poster

Koepp clearly learned several directorial tricks from David Fincher (who directed Koepp's screenplay for Panic Room); this film is full of swooping camera movements that swirl around Mort's cabin, passing through windows and mirrors (with the help of digital trickery) to convey Mort's increasing inner turmoil. The film looks terrific, and it helps to have an actor like Depp at the centre, with his off-handed approach to the role, full of comical quirks that make Mort a real person we can identify with. And the surrounding cast are all very good in extremely ill-defined roles. Frankly, it's Depp's increasingly unkempt hair that alerts us to the fact that something is deeply awry here! That's about how deep this film is. Koepp simply never gets anywhere near the story's underlying themes--the pain of separation and the confusion of artistic inspiration. He seems happy to simply pile on red herrings and potential villains, cranking the suspense without ever giving us a real reason to be frightened. So as the story progresses, the film feels thinner and thinner, to the point where it vanishes altogether at the end. While it's playing, the film is entertaining enough. But half an hour after the lights go up, you'll be hard pressed to remember anything about it at all.