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| Regression (I) (2015) Free Movie Download |
Director: Alejandro Amenábar.
Writer: Alejandro Amenábar.
Stars: Emma Watson, Ethan Hawke, David Thewlis.
Storyline
A young girl is sexually abused by her father. Thus, begins the disturbing tale of a father and daughter torn apart, thrown into the center of a conspiracy that shocks the nation. Written by Anonymous.
User Reviews
Terrible writing, flawed premise, not worth your time or money
9 October 2015 | by rabbitmoon (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews
Regression unfortunately has a fatal, unforgivable flaw that cancels itself out entirely.
The central theme is incredibly misjudged and ignorant, and really makes no sense. Regression has many uses, both therapeutically (it has been used to uncover repressed memories later corroborated by fact) and practically (I've known cases where people have found lost items from unlocking memories). The whole point of regression is to gather information that MAY point to facts - similar to how Tim Roth's character uses body language in Lie To Me. Facts are obviously still necessary to make a case - which is why hypnosis can't be used with any legal weight.
Yet like a stupid teenager taking a summer psychology course, the film takes pride in attacking the concept of regression as proof of anything. Which is already obvious because memories or distorted perception AREN'T proof of anything - and everyone surely knows that. We already dealt with this in Memento. This is why we have police who are supposed to find FACTS to make a case, rather than just arresting anyone who a crying child points to. Yet somehow, Ethan Hawke playing his usual self- conscious humble-yet-kind-of-arrogant character is the worst cop ever by forgetting the difference between facts and hearsay and getting into a big, paranoid fluff as a result. All of course as an excuse to have a few nightmares so the film can crow-bar in some cheap effects nonsense that looks like Eyes Wide Shut in a barn (but unfortunately without the nudity).
By focusing so much on the lack-of-proof nature of regression, the film completely distracts away from the massive importance of repressed memories, trauma, the actual value of regression as a tool to help someone or gather information (when done properly and in the right context, not by an ignorant screenwriter out to make a cheap scare film). More criminally, it fails to acknowledge that just because regression doesn't prove anything as fact, it also doesn't DISprove it. Terrible things DO still go on, and HAVE happened that aren't proved or reported, and the film is hugely obtuse by trying to sweep all that under the carpet.
The compelling ideas of influence, suggestibility and irrational bias as applied to trauma and perception are definitely interesting and important - but this film doesn't explore them with any insight whatsoever. "The Hunt" does a much better job. The normally excellent David Thewlis is completely wasted as a generic psychologist who contributes nothing except lame, common sense exposition - and the use of hypnosis is unbelievably inaccurate. I don't believe the writer/director read a single page of research about hypnosis or how actual regression is or was ever used. His own negative and ignorant bias is hypocritical in a film essentially wanting to be about suggestion.
Cinematically, the one or two "scary" scenes aren't scary at all, are poorly directed, brief and detached from any relevant context, they're clearly just shoehorned in for trailers and marketability. The rest of it feels like those vague, bland scenes between the killings in a Saw sequel, the kind that you forget within half an hour of finishing it, because you were just waiting for something interesting to happen. Its that dull.
Regression feels like a rushed first draft. No cinematic quality, no substance or research, a central idea that cancels itself out and ends up with nothing to say, very few memorable scenes, and a terrible, unforgivable damp-squib ending.
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