Hindsight
Hindsight
| 01 January 2008 (USA)
Hindsight Trailers

Unexpectedly pregnant with no means to raise a child, Dina and Ronnie decide to sell their unborn baby over the Internet. Their plan begins to unravel when the couple they've chosen, Paul and Maria, turn out to have an agenda of their own.

Reviews
jotix100

As the story begins, we watch a woman that appears to be a bit disoriented, walking with a baby in her arms singing a lullaby. A narrator informs us that it is her baby, but the woman carrying the infant is not really her mother. The action changes to a highway where a young woman, Dina, is seen trying to hitch a ride. A station wagon stops and she enters. The driver, Peter, appears to be a kind man that takes a big chance in giving this woman a ride. Dina begins to warm up to the older man. His demeanor elicits confidence in her, as she begins to tell him her story, that on the surface appears to be something, but is it really what happened? The viewer better pay attention because there are clues along the way that explains the situation.Dina and Ron are white trash lovers. Ron is a petty thief that has not amounted to much. His ambition is to get enough money to buy a boat and sail out of Florida. When Dina becomes pregnant, Ron is upset. Since they have nothing to do legally, they decide to capitalize in an unexpected asset: Dina's baby. The couple realizes there are desperate women that will do everything in their power, and will spend an incredible amount of money in getting a baby by whatever means.Maria, is such a woman. She's a doctor, apparently successful. She and Paul, her husband, live in a dream house. They have bought the model home in a new rich development. Paul is a lawyer and he wants to get Maria the baby she cannot have otherwise after a few trials and miscarriages. When Ron and Dina arrive at their place, they have already figured in their minds what they really want to do with this couple.Paul gets wise to their guests' real intentions. He tries to tell his wife, but she is too intent in buying it from Dina. There are indications early on that the couple is up to no good. Ron gets aggressive, never expecting that Paul is a formidable opponent. Maria, a diabetic, suffers a seizure. After all the fighting, there are only two people standing, Dina and Maria. Being a doctor, Maria figures out a way to get what she really wants, but cannot have otherwise.The premise for this film is deceptive. Director Paul Holohan, who has worked in television, was trying his hand in films. Working with Brooke Purdy's first screenplay, he created a horror drama in which what is real and what is not interplay in the story. We are surprised by Dina's frankness with a total stranger. Not only that, Peter sits in judgment, although his own take on what Dina has been telling him during the trip does not become known until the last part of the story. Then, it makes sense what we saw at the start and what is really happening at the end.Leonor Varela, the Chilean actress, has some good moments as Maria. We did not care much for Miranda Bailey's Dina. Jeffrey Donovan, Waylon Payne, and veteran actor Richard Riehle complete the cast.

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hansdewolff

This movie was a big surprise! The premise is very original and the script, the direction and the overall acting is actually very good.It's about two couples. There's this vagabond and petty-criminal couple that all of a sudden is confronted with an unwanted pregnancy and come up with the plan to make some money out of it by offering to sell the baby to as much high bidders as possible, with the obvious intention to cheat them all by running off with the down payments. And then there's this counterpart couple, very well to do yuppies that are desperately in need of a baby and are ready to do anything to get it. Both couples meet, and what starts off as a friendly and business-like confrontation eventually deteriorates into a psychological and physical battle to the death. The story is hung up on an afterwards "confession" that the woman of the first couple does to a stranger (Peter) who picks her up at the start of the movie as she is seen hitch-hiking along a deserted road in the middle of nowhere. She tells him her side of the gruesome story (which we see illustrated in flashbacks) and he comments on it in a more or less moralistic and stern, but on the other hand open-minded way, by which she is forced to reflect on her own deeds. Hence of course the title "Hindsight". After the movie I was a bit puzzled by this chosen form. What did they mean by it? A sort of catharsis for this woman? A moral judgment? Problem was, that the woman could hardly have survived the deadly attack on her that we witnessed in the last flashback. So how come we see her walking safe and sound along the road? Well, I like to see myself as an intelligent and experienced movie-watcher, but I had to read some of the comments here on IMDb to see the light: the woman was already dead and while she was on her desolate way to afterlife she was picked-up by Peter (!) who gave her the opportunity to relief herself of the burden of her bad deeds and choices. Wow, I felt so dumb and instantly I liked this movie even better for this very subtle twist! The movie is made with an obvious low budget, with only four actors (five, if you count the Peter character in), and most of the action takes place within the confinement of the second couple's house in the period of one and the same evening, so it's more or less like you're witnessing a theatre play. This feeling is enhanced by the sparkling and very clever dialogues between both couples. I was impressed by all actors. Leonor Varela is stunningly beautiful but at the same time a solid actress with perfect timing and a great feeling for subtle comedy. Jeffrey Donovan was very convincing as the young yuppie: self-assured and condescending, protective of his wife and wealth and ruthless when things got out of hand. Waylon Payne was equally convincing as the slightly psychopathic con-man, charming and full of bravado but also dangerously impulsive and rough. About Miranda Bailey much has been said in the comments here, and I can understand the reservations: she is not a beauty and her role is the least sympathetic of all, so as an audience it's almost impossible to relate to her and her motives. But in my opinion she played her character very well: in her "hindsight"-dialogues she's the unappealing, street-wise and cocky white-trash bimbo who doesn't give a damn, yet her self-reflections on the comments of Peter impress as genuinely sincere. And when, at the start of their meeting with the other couple, she tries to win them over with a performance of a sweet mother-to-be, she's equally convincing; and likewise when she later on in the movie is under heavy attack and has to fear for her life, so to me it proves that she's a great actress too. My only little and rather practical piece of criticism as to the script is: how come that the yuppie-couple didn't have or use a cell-phone?!? They are so well-to-do and modern, that it's totally unbelievable that at least the guy wouldn't have walked around with a cell in his pocket, so that they could have sent for help. Anyway, this movie gives a very convincing and in many ways disconcerting image of four intelligent people who try to act as if they care for each other, but in the end let themselves only be guided by greed, suspicion and selfishness. And don't bother too much with the moralistic setting, if that's not your cup of thee, just see it as an interesting extra, that at least is equally clever done as the rest of the movie. I rank it 9 out of 10.

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dbborroughs

Jeffrey Donvan headlines in a flashback tale of two poor as dirt drifters who end up with a baby on the way. Hoping to sell the kid for upfront cash before disappearing into the wind they run into a couple with other ideas and a nasty edge.Dark dank and unpleasant neo-noir works in its own dark way. The question is will its sleazy edge click with you or not. The film didn't really click with me and I kind of floundered around as the nastiness happened on screen. Its a not a terrible movie, but I get the feeling that if Jeffrey Donovan wasn't in it this film might have not been released very widely. Some where around five out of ten, you'll have to decide for yourself.

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brayneded31

This film has very well-written script. The characters are nicely-paralleled, simultaneously mirroring one another in their fundamental psychological struggles and diverging in their drives, desires, and ideals. The whole storyline is a psychotic eruption of social inadequacies combined with the ever-present question of whether or not our actions are to be judged by an absolute morality.With regards to character development, the script may have been better carried by stronger acting -- the internal development was present, but was not sufficiently layered within the characters.Overall, the film is sufficiently suspenseful to hold the attention of the audience.

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