SYNOPSICS
Beneath the Leaves (2019) is a English movie. Adam Marino has directed this movie. Mira Sorvino,Kristoffer Polaha,Doug Jones,Aaron Farb are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2019. Beneath the Leaves (2019) is considered one of the best Thriller movie in India and around the world.
Four small-town boys are kidnapped by James Whitley, a warm-eyed psychopath. His grotesque pursuit to reunite orphaned children with their deceased birth parents is halted when the boys escape and he is arrested. Fifteen years later Whitley flees during a prison fire and decides to see his mission through. Detective Larson, once Whitley's prior victim, is removed from the case due to impartiality leaving his partner, and lover, Detective Shotwell to solve the case. Fueled by rage and a chance of redemption, Detective Larson chases the steadfast psychopath on his own only to fall back into the same trap he once escaped as a child.
Beneath the Leaves (2019) Reviews
A complicated journey; great actors and strong performances make it well worth the ride.
Adam Marino's Beneath the Leaves takes you on a complicated journey; strong performances make it worth the ride. Warning: the subject matter is troubling. Abused foster children, and the perpetuation and outgrowth of that abuse. On the surface, it's a film about a psychotic child killer with a particular class of targets, four of whom escape, grow up, and move on with their lives...kind of...but carry with them layers of damage. When the killer breaks out of prison and begins systematically hunting them down, they are thrust back into the place of their nightmares. Underlying the plot is a deeper question of family and belonging that is unique to foster children as the unmoored fragments of society. Such children, unless adopted and fully integrated into a family, often remain emotionally unmoored and carry damage from their original abandonment and the mark of being unwanted. Add subsequent abuse, mistreatment and psychosis to that mix, and you have a real problem. Doug Jones, best known for playing exotic creatures (e.g. the Amphibious Man in The Shape of Water), plays James Whitley, a damaged soul who decides to "rescue" children like himself (orphaned foster children), reuniting them with their birth parents by euthanizing them. Kristoffer Polaha (Atlas Shrugged, Ballers, Get Shorty, Wonder Woman 1984), Christopher Backus (Bosch, Roadies), SerDarius Blain (Jumanji) and Christopher Masterson (Malcolm in the Middle) play the grown-up versions of the four victims who got away. The back story of their abduction, confinement and escape is told incrementally in well-placed brief flashes inserted into the present timeline. Polaha's portrayal of the perpetually drunk and frustrated victim turned rescuer - Detective Brian Larson - is emotional and among the strongest of his career. Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino plays Detective Erica Shotwell, Larson's partner and lover. Her performance is understated and mysterious. Shotwell is an outsider to the community. She has a chip on her shoulder and a past that she keeps from everyone, including her partner. Sorvino shines in the action scenes and is particularly strong in tense gun-drawn sequences, including pursuing and battling an escaped convict early in the film, and similarly pursuing Whitley through the woods in a climactic scene. When Larson is pulled from working the case of his own childhood abductor, Shotwell goes from working with a partner with whom she had way too much chemistry, to one with whom she has none. The pairing of Mira's Shotwell with Aaron Farb's (Kill the Messenger, The Originals) eccentric Detective Abrams makes for an entertaining contrast. At times, you can't tell if Abram's quirks are Columbo-like put-ons designed to lower the defenses of those with whom he engages in the course of an investigation, or if he's forgotten about the investigation altogether. Shotwell can't tell either. Farb's Abrams would be the odd man out in the story if not for "Rose," the equally odd hotel manager/madam. Melora Walters - known to Seinfeld fans as George's girlfriend in the classic "shrinkage" episode - is weirdly terrific as Rose. Mira's father, screen icon Paul Sorvino, anchors the film as the father-like Captain Parker, who we learn from old interrogation video was involved in Whitley's original arrest and conviction several decades earlier. Chris Backus' performance as Matt is subtle perfection. No actor could better capture the permanent effects of childhood trauma PTSD than Backus does here. To drive the point home, even the lovely Jena Sims (Sharknado, Attack of the 50-foot Cheerleader) as Alexa, can't break through Matt's shell. Chris Masterson's George is creepy as hell and worlds away from his most famous role of Francis on Malcolm in the Middle. Veteran actress Marla Adams (Splendor in the Grass, Days of our Lives, etc.) gives a solid performance as the well-meaning foster mother of the abducted boys. Don Swayze as Whitley's abusive foster father is appropriately disturbing. Even the kids in this film are outstanding. Of note, young Ashlyn Jade Lopez sets an emotional tone in the first frames of the film that stays with the viewer throughout. As noted above, the subject matter is dark and the story is a complicated journey. Outstanding performances make it well worth the ride.
Riveting, Suspense, Great Acting!
It kept me glued to the screen to the very end, but I did not see that ending coming. Very well done movie! Paul Sorvino was terrific! Very believable. Very Real. The whole cast was great!
VIEWS ON FILM review of Beneath the Leaves
"It's a cyclical pattern". So says the character of PI Erica Shotwell in Beneath the Leaves (my latest review). "Leaves", well it's quite the "sickening" movie. In "Leaves", an ill-defined psychopath escapes from an elaborate prison fire. Twenty years after being incarcerated, he vows to carry out his mission to kill four boys (now grown men) he had once held captive. Said psychopath also has an obsession with lethal injection needles, drugged alcoholic beverages, and ripped out fingernails. Ouch, ouch, and double ouch! Starring the likes of Paul Sorvino, Mira Sorvino, and Mira's husband Christopher Backus (talk about a Sorvino family affair), "Leaves" turned a little brown for me On Demand. I will say this though. Mira Sorvino sure is sexy and badass as a mirrored, Mariska Hargitay-style detective. At age 51, she's still a tall drink of water and a darn knockout. Clocking in at 90 minutes flat and distributed by Eagle Films (various birds tend to show up metaphorically here), Beneath the Leaves is worth watching again even though I couldn't quite bring myself to recommend it. Basically, "Leaves" is part mystery thriller, part Law & Order: SVU episode on steroids, part torture porn, and part Sleepers for the modern day. Look for plenty of grisly killings, a rare Julian, California locale, and the most outlandish overacting since Rod Steiger played a frothing Mayor and Danny Aiello played a douche Captain in 1989's The January Man. In conclusion, the director of "Leaves" (rookie Adam Marino) fashions a film that is sometimes haunting, sometimes discombobulating (the opening scene in relation to the rest of the flick is kind of head scratching), and sometimes veered into camp. With a weird mixture of barbarity and out of place humor, Beneath the Leaves may make you feel effectively icky but it's still sort of "beneath" me. Rating: 2 and a half stars.
mediocre
Except for a very promising start sequence, where some kids does their father, this was a mediocre,mish-mash acting and full of nick-nack talking grown ups with some inner demons that destoroy the story. its something about the acting that doesnt appeal to me, they are too rough,too designated and too perfect for the roles they fill. just watching them police doing house searches, look at how they move forward, how they handle the walkie talkie and gun. have they had any professional advisory at all ? i guess i'm wrong, but i think that this kind of flicks are made to lure the brainblasted part of the population into the vivid world of b-movies, beacause its b or c all over. the filmography starts with a tempting glow of perfection, then when the real film starts,you are strangled by the shining bright picture of hd'ish quality, with bad focusing . how could you.....? the fights and special effects are blurry with a lot of ketchup action. do watch if you want, im sure some will feel tensed by the action, to me though,the old grumpy man its not good enough and not recommended
Unpleasant Characters, Muddied Plot
"Beneath the Leaves" seeks to unite two narrative strands related to abused children. One strand focuses on two Bly kids who set their house ablaze with their alcoholic, abusive father inside. The second strand concerns four boys who were held captive in a mine shaft by a psychopath, prior to their daring escape. Years later, after another fire, the psycho escapes from prison and starts stalking the four boys who are now grown men. First, the entire premise of the film is an unpleasant, unwholesome, and extremely depressing topic. Second, the filmmakers fail to connect the two plot strands except for one detail that links the little boy involved in the Bly home fire to the psychopath Whitley in hot pursuit of the four grown men, Josh, Brian, Matt, and Georgie. SPOILER ALERT: For those viewers interested in the minute plot detail the solves the riddle of messy narrative, here it is: apple harvest. END SPOILER ALERT. The slow pacing only adds more misery for the film viewer, who was expecting a film that featured the outstanding performers Mira Sorvino and her father Paul. Mira's detective wears a fashionable hat while on the job, and the hat is more interesting than her character. Big Paul plays the hapless chief of police who has as much trouble controlling his wacky police office as he does in tracking down the villain. For most of the film, the chief is sitting at his desk. This film demonstrates why any work of cinema must start with a screenplay that develops both action and characters in a coherent way. In the case of "Beneath the Leaves," the action was far-fetched and the characters uniformly unlikable.