Showing posts with label psychological thriller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psychological thriller. Show all posts

Monday, August 30, 2021

Shutter Island














tags: mystery, psychological thriller
⭐⭐⭐⭐

From GoodReads
The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient.
Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane relentlessly bears down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades—with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. But then neither is Teddy Daniels.
I've heard of this book more than 10 years ago but never had the interest to read maybe because it was made into a movie with the trio I really dislike - director Scorsese and actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo and the movie sort of sullied the book for me. These 3 are the Hollywood people whose movies I avoid the most. Scorsese to me is an overrated director; DiCaprio acts the same way in all of his movies, and Ruffalo is a loud mouth Hollyweird personality with no talent whatsoever. But I digress. This post is about the book. Sorry. 😔

Although I have suspected who Teddy really is from the clues left by the missing inmate and when he finds and has a conversation with her in a cave, it is still a great psychological thriller and it kept me guessing the whos and whys up to the end. The ending has all the answers although Teddy's fate is a bit vague and it is up to the readers to draw their own conclusion. 

  

Monday, December 23, 2019

The Silent Patient

The Silent Patient tags: mystery, psychological thriller

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from goodreads
Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....
I read the novel because Goodreads readers voted it Number 1 in Mystery category for 2019. Umm, no. Not even close. Maybe 100 or lower, IMHO. The book is not written well and filled with all the things I don't like such as describing what characters do upon waking up. Just get on with the story, for Pete's sake! Don't describe clothing and other unnecessary stuff that don't add anything to the plot. It's as though the author is paid by the words. Sheesh.

The premise is interesting and because I am a fan of whydunnit mystery subgenre with unreliable narrators, I continued reading even after rolling my eyes at all the absurdities and inconsistencies. There are too many characters to throw off readers but they are shallow, not believable nor interesting, and went nowhere in the plot. It's exhausting to read the background of the main characters and all the flaws of the numerous minor characters. The author tried really really hard to be the new Gillian Flynn or Keigo Higashino but he failed BIGLY.

Most of the story is told from POV of Theo Faber and a small portion from POV of Alicia through her diary. I normally don't like first person narration and perhaps it added to my annoyance of the novel. The twist at the end is just meh and not really phenomenal as other readers make it to be. Theo's reason for trying to make Alicia talk again is weak. The whole story could have been told in 20 or fewer pages and it still will not be compelling nor engaging. There just isn't a good story to tell in this novel.

Not recommended.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Enemy



tags: psychological thriller, mystery

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I watched the movie twice, the second viewing merely 2 hours after the first viewing ended. First time I ever did that. The ending was so bizarre I said out loud "What does it mean?" repeatedly to myself. It was very puzzling, I kept reviewing in my mind the whole movie then decided to watch it again. It's streaming on Amazon free for Prime members anyway, and I had time to kill that day.

The movie stars one of my all-time favorite actors, Jake Gyllenhaal, and directed by Canadian Denis Villeneuve who directed my favorite movie of 2013, Prisoners, also starring Jake. Enemy is in the NEEDS MULTIPLE VIEWING TO FULLY UNDERSTAND OR APPRECIATE category, just like another of my JG faves, Donnie Darko. Enemy requires the viewer's full attention, from the first scene to the last, from meaningful dialog to seemingly insignificant but important scenes. Jake did an excellent job portraying two characters and the actress who played his wife is equally great. Her dialog, acting, and facial expressions gave me all the clues to what is really going on with the story.

Highly recommended to viewers who love to over-analyze psychocolgical thrillers.

If you haven't seen the movie, stop reading here because the following contains spoilers.