Watch The Speed of Thought For Free

Wow! Such a good movie.

Truly Dreadful Film

the audience applauded

The acting in this movie is really good.

This is actually a pretty decent movie. The writing is a bit weird, but the story is compelling and you really get involved with the characters after a while. This is more of a thinker, not an action-filled CGI-flick, but somehow it has its' own tension and several exciting moments. I've never been a Nick Stahl fan, but he does an okay job in this (even though he's a bit monotonous). It wouldn't've been the same without Mia Maestro though. She does great, and whatever weirdness is portrayed is only due to the script. Good flick.The concept could've been way more evolved, and with a super-budget and a different lead role, it could've been a blockbuster. The editing is at times awkward, and some scenes feel unfinished, but the main story is kinda cool. It leaves you with a weird feeling, mostly in a good way. If you've got nothing better to watch, and enjoy some semi-mindplay by mediocre actors (except Mia), it's worth a shot.

I can't really recommend this, or not recommend it, because I only managed to catch about half an hour of it in the middle, so I'm not assigning it a rating, but since it's garnered so few reviews, a couple of observations might help.First, anybody looking for the expectable flashy special f/x and instant editing ought to look elsewhere. The director and editor take their time in laying out and exploring each scene. The camera does not wobble spastically. Sometimes this lends the film a torpid tinge but I welcome it. Deliberation is almost a lost art. I'd rather be bored than wind up with a headache.Second, the acting is above average without being bravura. I'm thinking of the principles, Nick Stahl, Taryn Manning, Wallace Shawn, and Mia Maestro. Stahl looks a little like a dish-faced Tom Hanks with darker eyelashes and he's convincing without appearing to put much effort into being so.It's difficult to evaluate Mia Maestro's performance because her appearance is so flawless and her voice so hypnotically precise. She and Stahl fall for one another rather too rapidly, especially given the leisurely nature of some of their scenes together. It might have helped if she'd been allowed to be more innocently seductive. Maybe if she took her clothes off or something.Those who might enjoy this most probably ought to have a good deal of patience and a bit of magical thinking.

In the wake of the ultra budget blockbuster super-hero flicks, "The Speed of Thought" enters as a small link on the chain in the people-with-special-abilities genre. There are going to be less camera setups, bombastic-less music, no flashy costumes but instead more story and dialogue to concentrate on.A telepath named Joshua Lazarus (Nick Stahl), who works covertly for the NSA branch of the government, has a degenerative disease as a result of his ability. He's told no one survives past 28 yet the pills he's given will stale the inevitable. He's got nothing to lose if there's no future ahead of him, so he hangs loose with drinking, gambling, call girls and awaits madness to take hold, as the voices that were once controllable start to pile up. A light at the end of the tunnel appears and he gains some hope on one of his last missions in Uruguay when he meets an attractive woman named Anna (Mia Maestro) who also has the mind-reading ability known as "scoping." Joshua has a mentor named Sandy (Wallace Shawn) who runs "The Home" in which special people of his kind are kept for training and treatment. Sandy eases the pressure of withering away with sympathetic talks as he's dealt with many in the same situation. His slightly older friend Kira (Taryn Manning) starts to show symptoms before himself, yet at the same time she oddly starts to gain some new abilities. With Anna, Joshua finds a true connection when they mind meld memories together. Instead of showing shots of the characters' faces in person and a voice over top, this switches to an isolated area that has them dreamily talking to each other face-to face in what looks like they're physically standing there.This is as much of a slow moving drama as it's a love-at-first-telepathic-reading type of movie in the vicinity of "Hereafter" though without being exactly the same. Joshua and Anna form a forbidden connection as she's a natural who could never share her secret and he swore secrecy to the people he works for who keep a very close eye on him. They become personal in their heads but yearn for that physical touch. Together they make an attempt to get away from it all to be together no matter where that is but are sucked back into it when the company gets hot on their tail and some revelations are unveiled about who's really who and what it all means."The Speed of Thought" is a simple movie to escape with as you get the special abilities side that comes with its own set of rules and there is also some romance to make it more personable. If they shaved off some time it would have made a decent enough hour long TV pilot to get engaged in. But as is, the dialogue frequently overemphasizes to nail the point home and it causes the flow to get stuck in a lower gear and become somewhat tedious. Blair Brown, who plays the boss, feels tight casted from Fringe. There's some chemistry among the characters though it doesn't always leave much to read between the lines for what they're feeling or how it works. Usually filmmakers find a balance in the middle of stating the obvious and being too vague yet this continually steps over the line towards the former. Confusion--nope. Subtlety--what's that? Nearly every thought and movement is laid out in plain view, which sucks out the passion and challenge after awhile when it started out on a higher note. For a film about the mind, the dialogue doesn't always leave much to the imagination and drags down some of the rest of the film with oversimplification. (Also submitted on Cinema Freaks, http://docuniverse.blogspot.com)

Imagine Charles Xavier from X-Men with the evil streak of Magneto. Put this person into a home for special children and have him train children to be government spies and you have the right ingredients for what will eventually become the mind's resolve to right a terrible injustice. Special abilities meet government mishandling and it's only when the hero meets and falls for the woman of his dreams that he is able to bring the pain and needless killing of the innocents to an end. So is it possible there are gifted individuals out there with the ability to read our minds? The naysayers will call it a trumped up wishy-washy idea at best, but heaven help us all if it were so and the government gets control of them. An excellent movie if you're into a little bit of fantasy/science fiction...assuming of course that it is...