Watch Little Lise For Free

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This Danish short from 2005 starts out hugely promisingly, with a little girl standing outside clutching a doll with her head cocked to the side staring intently at something, then we see what: a man (presumably her father) carrying the body of a woman (presumably her mother) to their car and loading the body into the trunk, then he announces to the girl that they're going on a trip. If the writer/director had had the fortitude to stick rigidly to the little-girl's-eye view of this unfolding tragedy, it could have been both horrifying and fascinating as we would be forced to watch what sadly is an all too mundane situation through these young innocent eyes. (Years ago when "Dick Tracy" was still a newspaper comic strip, Tracy is once told that maybe a certain murder case isn't "important enough" for his unit. Tracy grimly replies "Murder is always important." Is it? Is it really? Presumably it should be...) Unfortunately "Little Lise" then devolves into yet another dumb-ass little supernatural romp. No cliché is missed, including the girl's eyeballs filling up with blood (to show she's being possessed by an evil spirit, get it?) and having a car start itself ---because the evil spirit is driving, get it? As the car drives itself off through the woods, we don't know what will happen to the girl and---here's the real "thumbs down"---we don't really care. Some good subtle performances by the actors playing the parents, especially in a flashback scene where each tries to wrest the girl's affection away from the other. But bottom line, if you see this listed as an entry on the FEARNet channel under Shorts, find something better to do with your twenty minutes.