*** - With a budget that appears to be even lower than that of a made-for-SyFy film, a cast full of nobodies, and a running length of about 75 minutes I had the feeling that this film was going to be one of those cheesy films that is good for a few unintentional chuckles but not much more than that. Instead, it actually ended up being a fairly interesting psychological sci-fi drama with a surprisingly intriguing plot and well thought out story line. Four years after being committed to an insane asylum after inexplicably shooting a TV weatherman, a 16-year old girl named Faron is released back into the general population and becomes embroiled in a mysterious series of murders and other goings-on that actually tie into her past crime and maybe even to alien life on Earth. Sure, that sounds like it has the potential to be pretty bad, but despite its lack of budget and special effects “Freaky Faron” manages to do something that a lot of modern sci-fi blockbusters can’t seem to do; that is, remain interesting for more than a few minutes at a time. I can’t say, though, that a few bucks tossed into the budget wouldn’t have helped this movie a bit, as the sets, costumes and design were all pretty drab. Plus, it could have used some real actors, as a few of the people in the cast did a pretty poor job with their lines. Despite those shortcomings, I found the movie to be good enough to keep my interest, which is certainly more than the last multimillion dollar ‘Transformers’ movie did.
I concur. I'm running out of things to watch in the Sci-fi section of Netflix, so I finally watched this 'Freaky Faron' movie I'd been avoiding for years... and I was pleasantly surprised. The lead actress did a great job. The film has the feel of a well thought out home movie. I thought Faron's mother's acting was a little wooden, but then again - she probably believed that her daughter was crazy and could snap at any time. I thought she could have been 'acting' scared of Faron. The kids acting was fine work.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a bigger budget development of the Faron character. She could be like a female Treadstone agent. Maybe Joss Whedon could give it a crack?!?