British Actress Blog

Complete Unknown (2016)

Score: 7/10

Director: Joshua Marston

Stars: Rachel Weisz, Michael Shannon, Erin Darke, Michael Chernus.

Complete Unknown

Rachel Weisz

Synopsis: As a man contemplates moving to California with his wife for her graduate program, an old flame, a woman who often changes identities reenters his life at a birthday dinner party.

Review: Alice Manning ( Rachel Weisz ) likes to change her life styles when ever she gets bored. One day she decides to visit her former lover after fifteen years of disappearance. Tom ( Michael Shannon ) is both shocked and intrigued by her arrival at his birthday party. This event allows him to catch up with Alice and understand what she has done and what she is going through as they both say their last goodbyes.

Alice Manning

Rachel Weisz

Rachel Weisz is charming beyond charming. She plays this part very well. She seems very secretive and elusive in this movie, which makes you want to know more about her. Michael Shannon is another actor that owns the movie he is in. He always does a solid job from movies like 99 Homes (2014) to Salt and Fire (2016) he is great at what he does. These actors definitely help make the story work with their superb acting skills. When Michael Shannon looks at himself in the mirror and question himself, it feels real and not like your just watching a movie.

Alice Manning

The Unknown

The film focuses on the concepts of Identity and social engineering. The character Alice Manning does not want to be who she is. Is that cowardice or is she engaging in her personal freedom? Her antics have a heavy cost on the people that care for her. She social engineers people into believing that she is someone she is not with her amazing charm and role playing skills. I can’t help but feel like she would be a great ‘Faceless Man’ in the House of Black and White in HBO’s Game of Thrones. Truly becoming no one and being some one else so completely that it is almost like she does not have her own identity. It seems like she has some kind of personality disorder, she is a con artist, or just a pathological liar. Her lies just flow from her, one after another so seamlessly. Maybe Rachel Weisz’s character’s name is ‘Alice’ because this world is her wonderland. The really interesting parts of the movie happen when Alice interacts with other people. She stays so calm when talking to them and the sincerity in her eyes makes people believe her lies.

Interesting

Movie

This is a fascinating story. The movie becomes more interesting the more you watch it. The film has a way of pulling you into the story. The cinematography is done in a way hat makes you feel as though you are there with the characters. The movie also has perfect use of wide shots, making use out of every part of the frame. Setting the tone of the scene perfectly. Its actually very charming for a film. The framing of the characters shift in relation to their mood. For instance, if a character is feeling anxiety, the camera shift to put them out of frame as way of showing how awkward they feel in an embarrassing situation. The director knows how to slow down the pace of the film in order to let you the viewer take in the atmosphere of the situation the main characters are in. I love how you can sympathize with the characters feelings through the camera work. The musical score is fitting to the situations. The directors knows when not to play the music, allowing for a more realistic scene that focuses more on human interactions of the film. The movie is a good watch, I enjoyed it.

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