This movie - is a fascinating & haunting personal growth story - but to understand it helps if you live on a boat / are on aboard one / own a boat.Many aspects in this story would be lost on apartment or house dwellers (as well they should).A true portrait of life on an older vessel in adverse conditions - cold & condensation is are just some of them.My personal favorite - the scene with the head !These parallels of repairing ones vessel back to live from total neglect is no simply task. Repairing & restoring - while suffering through it - is so contrary to the rapid throw away and sink'em style of other stories or lifestyles..This movies sticks with you and evolves - if you give it the time it needs to fill your sails with air to propel you forward - caution this is NOT a mega cruise and there is no fresh shrimp at the buffet on the lido deck !

well...lets see. i admit to being an avid movie-holic. (i am currently on a 12 frame program). i honestly don't know what movie the other people found in their DVD container. the only way i could rate this movie on the high end of the scale is to drop massive amounts of ecstasy and view the entire film through rainbow colored glasses. what an insult to waste the talents of such experienced good solid actors with this drivel. i am the first to admit that the cinematography was solid but most of it was a little too derivative. i would like to think i understand the concept of still photographic images on film, but after awhile it became rote and lost its initial impact. i pretty much had the film figured out in the first 10 minutes. (i did not know the car accident where the lead character loses his entire family was due to an illicit affair he was having.) just about everything that transpired was telegraphed way ahead like when you fighting someone that pulls their arm way back before they strike. don't get me wrong. i like thoughtful, insightful, quiet character driven movies. just don't mistake this leaden, draining, bloated jackwagon of a film as one of those kind. if i had a choice between watching this movie or paint drying, i would definitely go for the wall. if you are still not deterred from wasting any of your precious time and still wish to view this throughly turgid affair after reading this piece, don't forget to go to the hardware store first and pick up a few gallons....just in case.

A man arrives at a dock, in suit & tie and carrying his suitcase, buys a boat as-is, he seems haunted but we don't yet know why. If you've ever experienced deep grief or a need to hideaway and heal, this film will have a deeper meaning for you, if you've not yet experienced those tortured emotions in life you may not yet understand fully the emotional depths this film represents. I've been there, I am there, and felt the film all the more meaningful for my own experiences. The waterside setting is magical and the story plays against the backdrop of its setting (Traverse City, Michigan) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Children's Hour, which given Longfellow's own sad history gives the film even deeper resonance. The typical Hollywood films you'll barely remember a month later but Hide Away will have a lasting impact and this, this, is the film you want to see this Summer. Best work I've seen from Josh Lucas and James Cromwell is, even more than usual, so very memorable as The Ancient Mariner. I'd originally rated this film an 8 but, after viewing it a second time, I changed my review to a 10. Now I'm left wondering what my own boat is...

A young man arrives dockside near an unnamed lake, dressed in a dark suit, and rolling a suitcase behind him. Who is he? We don't know. Why is he there? He's there to buy a boat ('AS-IS' as the seller reminds him.) What is he going to do with it? He's going to repair and restore it. Why?A-ha. There's the central question of the new film "Hide Away," now beginning to get a limited release around the country. Josh Lucas plays the unnamed man and, besides the rolling suitcase, he is lugging some serious baggage around with him. We are never fully told of the tragic events that led to his arrival - and that's just as well – because it's not about what happened or why. This film is about the process of getting past life's most difficult moments and moving on. The Young Mariner (as he's listed in the credits,) takes on the task of repairing the "Hesperus," a broken-down hulk desperately in need of work to return it to its former glory. Yes, the symbolism is a bit obvious. Yes, one must suspend one's disbelief that an individual (who seems to have a high-tech background) would know everything necessary to complete a major overhaul of a sailing vessel (the film does take a shot, somewhat unconvincingly, to explain this away,) but go along with it. There are rewards to be had from this film.Isolating himself from his past, the Mariner eventually finds some comfort in his interactions with those around him. Ayelet Zurer, Jon Tenney, and the magnificent James Cromwell all do yeoman's work as denizens of the marina where the boat is docked. Cromwell, as The Ancient Mariner, appreciates the Young Mariner's situation and speaks to him of his own regret at spending a "year of mooring" (the film's original title – a better fit, thinks I…) Please don't let the subject matter of this film turn you away. It is not a depressing film. It is a quiet, beautifully filmed manifestation of Kubler-Ross's Five Stages of Grief. Often the dialogue is sparse, and one is left to decipher the Mariner's thoughts. Lucas gives a beautifully nuanced performance in which little is said, but volumes are spoken.This film is also enhanced considerably by its wonderful cinematography. Who knew that Michigan could look so good? Filmed in and around Traverse City, there are shots in this film that are stunning in their beauty. The Michigan Tourism Board should acquire the print rights to a couple of shots. Hell, it got me thinking about a visit.Too often small films like this one are lost in the shuffle of big-budget, Hollywood blockbuster summer releases. If you've tired of explosions, aliens, and superheroes, and are looking for something with real substance, seek this one out.www.worstshowontheweb.com