THE DARK (2005)

Directed by Marc Foster. Starring:Maria Bello, Sean Bean, Sophie Stuckey, Abigail Stone. Synopsis: A woman and her daughter move to Wales to be with her husband and experience tragedy when the child dies accidentally. In dealing with her grief, yet not accepting it, the mother learns of the history and legend of the house she now inhabits and the fate of another little girl that is similar to hers, yet happened a half century earlier. Her foray into the supernatural leads her to encounter the long dead girl in the flesh and an effort to reconnect with her own daughter from beyond the grave.

The main thing that will strike anyone watching this movie is the beautiful scenery and the videography which provides the setting and backdrop of this movie. Set in Wales, it involves a mother (Mario Bello) and her daughter (Sophie Stuckey) who come to Britain from America for the purpose of living with their husband/father, played very well by Sean Bean. 

The family reunion takes a turn for the tragic when the child dies suddenly in an accident. The relationship between Maria Bello's character and Sean Bean's, already strained, becomes more problematic when Maria becomes obsessed with the history of the home in which they are living, Welsh legend, and the ghost of a little girl named Ebrill (Abigail Stone) who died a half century before in that home and, coincidentally, resembles her dead child a great deal.

The journey into Welsh legend soon pays off as Ebrill appears to the grieving parents in the flesh, a fact which convinces Maria Bello that it is possible that she can still bring back her daughter, if she can solve the riddle of the passage between the world of the living and the dead as it is told in the ancient Welsh lore.

From there the film takes several flashbacks to the death and life of Ebrill, and we are tantalized with the tidbits of her grieving and psychotic father who, in the aftermath of Ebrill's death coaxed numerous other villagers to take a "Jim Jones Kool-Aid" type plunge off the prodigious cliff that is the centerpiece of the village.

We are also treated to a recurrent undercurrent theme of sheep, and their implied mystical knowledge and/or effect on the dead that bee bop between the living and the dead. The cinematic portrayal and videography, indeed, deserve special kudos. This is a beautifully shot movie.

My big problem with this film is the story line and the conclusion. Without intentionally spoiling it for anyone who has not seen it, I would say that the acting in this movie is very good. Maria Bello is captivating and believable, and I was glad to see her in a role where she was not getting brutalized or psuedo raped by her own husband, as she was recently in Secret Window and History of Violence.  Sean Bean is the best here, the most empathetic and the character with whom makes the most sense. The two young ladies are also wonderful. Its just the script that I have a problem with here. Its not bad, but it could have been better and more coherent. A little clearer explanation of the Welsh legend would have been in order. Is the place the dead go a version of Hades, Heaven, or something in between? When people come back from the dead, are they changed or the same? Do they owe something to those that have gone in order to bring them back?

Another tenet of this movie is the supposed bad parenting of Maria Bello, which is I would guess set up to make her ultimate sacrifice all the more appealing. It just doesn't work for me. As someone who has dealt professionally with instances of child abuse in real life, I'm not buying a one time slap in he face of a smart mouthed pre-teen as apocalyptically as the movie seems to want me to. 

Also, the recurring theme of the sheep is something that I knew I was supposed to "get", but I just didn't. It is very possible that sheep are a mystical figure in Welsh lore, but if I don't know that,  there is not much in the movie to tell me why they are. This is not a big deal, but the movie is built on this premise in large part.

The ending of the movie, while predictable (c'mon, if you are any kind of a movie buff, you know from the first time that you see a majestic shot of that beautiful cliff, you can be your life someone is going off of it) doesn't work well but not because the ending is predictable. It just doesn't work or answer the questions brought up by the movie itself. Those who see this on DVD will be treated to an alternate ending that is, in my opinion, significantly better than the one that was used. This is the case primarily because it ends the film where it should have, and does not go on for five minutes too long and give us a conclusion that is inconsistent with where the film was going the whole time.

The Dark is a serious attempt at a serious story that is worth your while, but probably won't be the best movie you have seen of its type or genre.  If you pick it up you will enjoy it to a degree, but it won't make any of your "all time" lists. At least, that is what I think.