Bestseller Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: An author accused of plagiarism attempts to write a new novel seemingly dictated by her daughter's imaginary friend only to discover it may be true.

Review: With a cool premise, an eerie setting, and incredible cinematography, you'd think this film would turn out to be a slam dunk, right? Wrong. I had been meaning to watch this film for the longest time, but the anticipation has become almost half-expected disappointment; my most repeated complaint continues to be regarding wasted potential. There are so many good ideas presented that it's actually kind of startling that they would blow it this badly with terrible endgame choices, nonsensical plot decisions, and laughable overacting. Honestly, it's like someone wanted to have every horror movie cliche and plotline wrapped up in one movie while never accurately pulling off a single idea. There were so many pointless setups I thought they might have been intended to be red herrings, but I think that gives the writer too much credit.

I guess we can start off with what was good first this time around. The excellent cinematography will catch your eye immediately as it not only makes the film appear to be working with a larger budget, but it shows off the elegant beauty of the Korean landscape. A lot of shots are interesting and serve to create tension well enough even if there is rarely a payoff; to be fair, this certainly isn't the first time a mediocre film appears better than it really is at the hands of a capable cinematographer. The basic premise to the film is, in fact, interesting, creative, and sprinkled with bouts of originality. The notion that the lead, Hee-soo, is trying to write a comeback novel and becomes entranced by a creepy tale her daughter says her imaginary friend continually repeats sounds, admittedly, badass; if only the film presented things to that degree and with as much clarity as I'm providing. As an extension of this, making the setting an old orphanage opened up a lot of possibilities that definitely were not exploited to their zenith...or at all for that matter.

So with this much going for you, how do you screw it all up? Apparently, quite easily. Okay, first and foremost, the movie is way too long (two full and long hours!) when it does not have nearly enough material or a sophisticated enough mystery to drag out the suspense. The mystery as to what is going on does keep you intrigued for a good amount of the film, but it slowly fizzles as you become bored with the intentional stalling to pointlessly pad the film out unnecessarily. You eventually reach a point where the story has become so convoluted you stop caring about why things are happening. The writer/director tried to tackle too much all at once without factoring in how it would all come together. The orphanage as a setting is wasted because it never once becomes relevant to the plot or is even implied to be connected to the story. Yes, the house is pivotal to everything, but it didn't need to be an orphanage except for the sheer red herring factor which comes off as a huge ass waste. The drama with Hee-soo and the plagiarism is stupid and draws out the film longer when it should have been altered to fit the film more concisely. Essentially, Hee-soo is accused of plagiarism, tries to write a new book to forget about it, only to be accused of plagiarizing again with this ghost story she hears from her daughter, Yeun-hee. This would have played out significantly better if we skip the first incident of plagiarizing altogether, have Hee-soo attempting to write the book, as is, with the ghost story, and then when Hee-soo is accused of plagiarizing she's taken aback because she thought her daughter was making it all up. Then her drive to prove she didn't plagiarize would make more sense as she is both scared that maybe there really was a ghost. I mean, you'd change the entire dynamics of the film, but it would work more efficiently and become audience friendly instead of rage-inducing. Oh but then we'd spoil the idea that Yeun-hee is already dead and in the mind of Hee-soo! Oh nooooo! This plotline comes out of left field (yet somehow predictable in its stupidity), is beyond unnecessary, and, most unforgiving of all, somehow manages to not effect the plot except to further drag things out. Oh great, now we have a guilty mom plotline on top of an already needlessly complicated story that has no fucking clue where it's heading!

You know, they don't even fully explain to you whether or not Hee-soo did plagiarize or was there really a ghost involved. What, you thought this movie would have scares and take advantage of its own ideas? Of course not! So let me get this straight: Hee-soo wasn't taking care of Yeun-hee because she was so wrapped up in this plagiarism scandal, and she died in an accident like a moron. Hee-soo feels guilty for it so she imagines Yeun-hee helping her write her next book supposedly regaled by an imaginary friend/ghost. So a crazy woman imagines a ghost, who talks to a ghost, to collaborate on a book that was already written by someone else--and that other writer, surprise surprise, serves to no connection to the plot? The fuck? Ughhhh. Grrrr. But the whole point of the mystery is that the supposedly plagiarized book is real...so...uh...was there a fucking ghost or not?! When we finally meet the killers who conveniently show up in the last torturous half hour, one of them appears to see a ghost and one of them apparently was hearing whispers before he died so what the hell? Oh yeah, keep it vague--have to be artistic and all! The film attempts to provide a few twists and turns, but they're either painfully obvious or would have made more sense in another movie. Why couldn't they simply present this film as a conventional horror or even focus on the thriller aspects? If all this weren't bad enough, you have to deal with 120 minutes of shitty overacting from most characters, especially Hee-soo, with the exception of Yeun-hee, who is acceptable, and the husband who is probably the only decent actor. You don't even want to know how many times I was screaming for Hee-soo to calm the fuck down! Should have known she was nuts the moment I saw that crazed hair and eyeliner.

I felt like I was watching ten different movies here which is kind of ironic coming from a film that centers around plagiarism; there were glimmers of shit like "Secret Window" and "What Lies Beneath" while appearing to be greatly influenced by something like "Stir of Echoes." Under all the bullshit I feel there is a good movie trying to get out, but it tried to accomplish and be more than it was capable of. In different hands or with a more clear direction, this could have been one of the legends, but, unfortunately, that will never be. Real scares would have made this film a hundred times better no matter how played out they were or even if they were jump scares. Overall, this film isn't all bad even though the story is a mess; it has its moments and looks good while having them. However, I simply can't recommend this film because it makes me mad thinking about all the poor decisions and idiotic handling of what should have been a great premise. So the next time you pass this title on Netflix, just keep going.

Notable Moment: When we see a ghostly Yeun-hee emerge out of the shadows. It's probably the only scary moment and a sort of foreshadowing of revelations to come. In retrospect it makes no sense whatsoever, but that's beside the point.

Final Rating: 5.5/10