DVD Review: Hindsight
Hindsight (2008)
Studio: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: May 26, 2009
Directed By: Paul Holahan
Cast: Miranda Bailey, Leonor Varela, Waylon Payne, Jeffrey Donovan & Richard Riehle
Review By: Annie Riordan
Peter is driving through the lonesome Midwest when he stops for a young hitcher. The sullen girl accepts the ride and ends up coughing up her life story in flashback to the stranger, who is oddly interested in her confession.
Dina and Ronnie are two white trash loser-lovers, living out of cheap motels and stolen cars, fencing whatever they can steal to make money and, in general, not giving a shit about anyone but themselves or anything but their own wants and needs. Then, Dina discovers she’s pregnant. A baby is the last thing the couple needs, so they decide to give it up…for a price. Cruising the internet, the trashy assholes happen upon a childless yuppie couple willing to shell out the two hundred thousand for a baby. With visions of dollar signs dancing in their heads, Dina and Ron head on out to the ritzy estate where Maria and Paul live in elegant grandeur.
But as the two couples attempt to get to know each other, the deal sours and Paul wants out, believing that Dina and Ron are planning to rip them off. Indeed, the heartless Dina and the dipshitty Ron have no intention to turn their baby over, hoping instead to turn their unborn child into a slot machine which will bring them a steady flow of cash from as many desperate couples as they can find.
But Maria is determined to get the baby, even if she has to take it by force.
At first glance, Hindsight is nothing more than a taut melodrama, not exactly horror fan fare. As it escalates into a full blown hostage situation, with the reins of power switching back and forth from couple to couple until the whole thing threatens to collapse into absolute ridiculousness, we begin to wonder why our friendly driver doesn’t dump Dina on her ass along the side of the road, as any sane person would. Slowly, we are let in on the joke, but “slowly” is the key word here. This movie takes so long to get where it’s going that by the time you’ve figured it out, you no longer care. You just want it to end so you can watch something more interesting.
It doesn’t help either that none of the characters are at all likable. Dina is a bitch, Ron is a yeehaw asshole, Paul is an uptight, prissy tantrum thrower and Maria, though pretty, is obviously deeply disturbed. There’s no one to root for, and as the film crawls along and becomes increasingly unbelievable, your patience wears thinner than a stripper’s G-string.
This movie really wants to be suspenseful and (slightly) mindbendy, but in the end, it’s just overlong and silly.
Brutal As Hell Rating:
2 out of 5
