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Good movie but grossly overrated

Good concept, poorly executed.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

"The Monitor" tells the story of a mother and her son, who fled the violent father into a new identity. When the mother buys a baby phone for her son, she starts to become the witness of alarming dialogues between an adult man and a child, that don't seem to originate in her flat. More and more, the tides are turning against her and she faces some serious decisions.The movie was beautifully produced. You can see that some time and effort have been spent on the atmosphere of the film, which is dark and slow and helps to create an environment in which you could imagine something serious happen every single moment. The general story does the rest to keep you watching and guessing what will happen next. The film keeps getting more mysterious the longer you watch. Unfortunately, the end kind of destroyed this one for me. If you really rethink everything that happened, there are just so many things that don't make any sense at all or are just blank unbelievable that for me it felt more like Fight Club gone wrong. That's sad because I still see a lot of potential within the story and I think that you could have done a lot more with it.All in all this is a movie packed with tension. If you're not focused on the end but more on the way, this could be a movie you can have a lot of fun with actually.

Babycall is a sparse psychological mystery / thriller by writer / director Pal Sletaune, centred on a convincing and naturalistic performance by Noomi Rapace, with excellent support from Kristopher Joner as her character's awkward admirer and Vetle Qvenild Werring as her son Anders. As a claustrophobic mood piece, it is effective, and Rapace gives an accomplished performance, as should be expected by those who know her work. Events are bleak and the central character is troubled, and it is not a comfortable watch, but ultimately likely to be somewhat satisfying for fans of the genre, if perhaps only for the central performances, since horror is not a word that sits well in its description.

In short, it's still about a single mother that arrives in a oppressive block apartment with her young child and they have to face paranormal events.Well, first of all, Norway isn't NYC. It's bare, remote, close to nature and the few habitants have a big space to live. So as it's a bit empty, the oppression goes up. I say it's Norway and not Sweden as the school looks decrepit. This emptiness, poverty is omnipresent in the movie as the family gets into their apartment without anything. It's a sort of vacation (because during this time, we leave all our comfort, dressing, equipment,...) except, for them, everyday is like this. Thus, the scenes inside the apartment have a special appeal because they are really cut of everything. In addition, the block is austere, dead calm and it's hard to tell the difference from a hospital or a prison. If a lot of French live like this (it's social urbanism), I have never experienced this and in a way, i feel really attracted by that.So, all the background was there for the break of paranormal. It's difficult to explain the story (a bit like "Lost Highway"), as I understand that 2 facts meet: the ghost of a abused child and the vision of the mother. It's hard to tell "the" reality from her "reality". As the movie gives clues at the end, you can enjoy a second watching.The cast is excellent: the shy, supportive friend is totally accurate as I behaved the same when i got invited by a single mum living in a block: arrival with flowers and a gift for the kid (for my constant reader, we went also to a movie after and that's why my list of "Best Movie of the Year after my birth" ranks for 2006, "Ice Age 2" with my comment: "best seance ever").As for Noomi, she proves once again that she is the definitive best actress nowadays. Unlike a lot of her pals, she isn't superficial, just a look (or a name) as you can feel her mind and feelings. She is also hard to catch as she can be as fragile as resilient, as dumb as resourceful and as cold as warm. An excellent movie to recommend which is the perfect proof that movies talent can be found everywhere (and not only in America!) and that a good movie doesn't mean big money, big effects, big sequels,...

This one was, at least in Norway, marketed as a horror film. Seeing the trailer a long time ago, at least I got the impression of that. It looked thrilling and frightening, capturing the feeling of paranoia. But this is not by far a horror film. There are no frightening moments in it at all. But it could still be a good thriller, right? Well, not great, but not directly bad either. It's as mediocre as it could get. It had a lot of opportunities to escalate, but it never really did, at least not the way I wanted it to. A huge problem I have with Norwegian movies is the acting. There is lot of over-acting. There is some of that in this one too. Kristoffer Joner is great, as he usually is. Noomi Rapace however, I think over-acted a little bit. At times, she was kind of...too dramatic. This goes for many of the other actors too. They are not that believable. But it's not that big a deal. If a movie is good, I can look past that.Some times the movie felt more like a drama. Many times that mix can result in something great, but they didn't really pull it off here. I felt it slowed down the movie. It became plain boring at times. One thing that struck my mind was how this movie reminded me of the Spanish horror/thriller "The Baby's room". I'm not accusing the creators of ripping it off, but I couldn't help seeing some similarities between the two. It wouldn't surprise me if it was a little inspired by it, but of course, it's two whole different plots. It was just some similar elements between the two.Don't let me keep you from watching it. Norwegian movies are often better received outside the country than here in Norway. That's weird, but anyway, you might like it.