Somehow this uneven disturbing drama keeps your interest even though it has flat and drab acting and a clumsy plot. A satisfying ending would've saved the film completely but it failed miserably in that department. As a matter of fact, the film literally ends as if they ran out of production budget but I doubt that is true because it runs a full 2 hours. The film is purposefully ambiguous and plays with the question of what would happen if psychopaths meet each other. This cat and mouse play is actually successful. It's also successful at studying the true life mental disorder of Munchausen syndrome. The two main characters display this syndrome in horrific ways. Where it falls flat is in the attempt to wrap up a complex story with the most elementary and lazy ending ever. It was almost like the writer was purposefully sabotaging the film. A lot of people compared it a Hitchcock film but to me it reminded of Brain De Palma lesser films. Actually this film plays better as a satire of De Palma films but I doubt that was its intent.

Some scenes are really well-crafted (the extreme slow motion scenes in particular are gorgeous) so there is definitely some talent behind the camera.But, and that's a big but, the pace is at a snails speed at times and you really get the itchy trigger finger for the fast-forward remote button a lot.I think had it been edited down to 90 minutes it could have been a fairly effective movie over all but as it is you really need to have a lot of patience with it, it's 2 hours long but it feels even longer.And the second hour of the movie doesn't quite come together as well as I'm sure they intended, which is a shame because it does have a pretty cool plot which reminded me a bit of French horrors more so than American.So yeah overall a strong 4 or a weak 5 from me.

Talking to a family friend about my plans to view Horror films with an "epic" running time for the upcoming October Challenge on IMDb's Horror board,I got told about an excellent-sounding, 2 hour (!) Horror from the Mumblecore genre that he had recently picked up on DVD,which led to me getting ready to locate the proxy.The plot:Walking to the bus stop after having an ultrasound scan, Esther Woodhouse is attacked by a stranger,who knocks Woodhouse out,and kills her unborn child.Waking up in hospital,Woodhouse is told that she barely survived the attack,and that she has lost the unborn child.Trying to help Woodhouse out as much as possible,the hospital arranges Woodhouse to attend a therapy group designed to support women who have lost a child.Nervously sitting down for her first therapy meeting,Woodhouse begins talking to Melanie Michaels,who is attending the sessions after her husband and son had died in a car accident.Feeling that she is able to open up to Michaels the most in the group,Woodhouse (who apart from a lover has no friends or family) starts meeting up with Michaels outside of the group,for lunch and coffee.Walking round a department store one day,Woodhouse notices Michaels (who has not noticed Woodhouse) asking security to help her find her missing son.Secretly following Michaels,Woodhouse begins to fear that Michaels may not be all that she seems,when Michaels opens her car door,and her "dead" son walks out.View on the film:Keeping the The Newton Brothers expert score humming away in the background,co-writer/(along with Kevin Donner) director Zack Parker uses long,superbly held takes which allow the full unfolding horror to dig right under the viewers skin.Keeping away from featuring traditional tracking shots,Parker keeps the audience firmly connected to the characters by clearly using tracking shots aimed directly at the characters face,which allows for the horror across their faces to be fully displayed and splashed across the screen.Refusing to turn away from the most terrifying moments,Parker delicately gives each major set piece its own appearance,as Parker goes from scattering blood across the screen in an almost 3D manner,to using creaking floors and shoes to create the image of a traumatising act taking place.Opening the film with a vicious hit,the writers skilfully rip apart every perception that the viewer initially makes on the characters,with the writers pressing down on every small, peculiar moment that the characters express,and pushing them all right to the extremist edge.Along with the gradually revealed horror,the writers also slash the film with sharp Mumblecore conversations,which create a brilliant atmosphere,that suggests that something is deeply wrong.Entering the movie getting left on the floor for dead, Alexia Rasmussen gives a raw performance as Woodhouse,with Rasmussen showing Woodhouse's silent grief to turn into unrelenting rage,as she begins to uncover Michaels.Joined by a wonderfully brittle Joe Swanberg,the elegant Alexa Havins gives a fantastic performance which transforms from light & airy to ruthless and sharp-toothed,as Woodhouse begins to discover the proxy.

I didn't even know this movie existed until it was briefly reviewed by Red Letter Media. I was so intrigued by their review that I figured I'd give it a shot myself. Here are my impressions: This movies has a very distinct flavor to it that I can't quite put my finger on. There are rarely movies where I experience a genuinely eerie atmosphere throughout the length of the film ; this is one of those movies. It reminded me of the recent "Enemy" in that regards - doing a very good job in using the music, script, and cinematography to create an overall disturbing feel. However, I sometimes found a conflict in atmospheres. Whereas in Enemy, it is obviously meant to be a serious drama throughout the film, I could not tell if Proxy was trying to communicate an entirely serious drama (in which case it failed), a black comedy (in which case it at times succeeded), or if it was going for that Tim Burton vibe where the two are mixed together for their own distinct oddity. I'm gathering that it was probably the latter.I spend so much time saying that because it is very much an atmospheric movie. The character arcs are not overly complicated and once you understand their motivations, everything they do falls into place and makes sense. The movie itself is more a matter of piecing everything together to understand what those motivations are and how they can lead to almost amusingly pitiful and tragic events. The black comedy aspect in it might be entirely something I'm seeing alone - and I say that only because sometimes the actresses were going way over the top! I could not tell if they were purposely acting poorly at times or if they really wanted to come across as that comically insane or stereotypical. If it was purposeful, then I'm convinced it was meant to be a darker irony. If it was not, then there could have been some major improvements to the performances (hence the 6 out of 10). In any case - the secondary characters, passing doctors and teachers, etc, they without a doubt are questionably poor actors. Some could argue that maybe it was the script itself, and that they had bad material to work with? However, I am not convinced, as I felt a good portion of the script was conceivable and the portions that were less likely to occur could be passed off as a maniac rant or a stylistic soliloquy from the writers.However, I am gathering this was a lower budget film that, due to its edgier content, had a hard time attracting talent. For that, I commend the director for filming competently with what he had. Were some of these characters and plot points done before? Perhaps - but look at any movie. They're all derived from each other. In terms of originality, this is actually a breath of fresh air. Regarding the common complaints: edginess for the sake of edginess; accusations of misogyny; and seemingly flat characters. For the first one, I felt the entire point of the genre of this movie is to deal with and face the existence of edgy and dark content, so that complaint is null and void to me (though there was a bit of non-plot-developing sex scenes/implications involved). For the accusations of misogyny, I can understand where that complaint is coming from. You have a couple crazy women and then a highly cookie-cutter lesbian, but I have no particular complaints. If you go to any segment of society, there are people who are attracted to and abide by certain stereotypes. It just so happened that one character fell into that segment. Could Anika have been more of a person and less of a stereotype? Absolutely - I agree. But she wasn't a major character, so I won't nag. Otherwise, I don't see why the existence of insanity in female characters must thereby mean that the director/writer was trying to say all women are crazy. I just saw it as capturing the story of characters who happened to be women. The cast is overwhelmingly female (from the social worker, to the doctors, to the detective) - all of whom seem to be normal, average, sane ladies. So I don't see much of anything in the story saying "all women are nuts." Nope - just "all these women are normal - oh and here's a story about two characters who are nuts that are women." (However, I should say that I do agree that not all the dialogue seems entirely genuine to females specifically - but I felt it was appropriate for the characters themselves, regardless of gender, most of the time.) Lastly, as previously mentioned, some characters seemed rather flat. Their arc was limited and they experienced little development or fell very quickly into a trope. I'd have to unfortunately say that is true. Their depth is not in the complexity of their humanity - its more in the complexity of exploring their insanity. So the characters don't develop or change much as beings, but rather we get to see the consequences of the characters that they already are. And since they're pretty colorful as it is, I have no complaints.Conclusion? An ambitious film that did well with what it could and had some clever ideas about how to communicate a variety of well-hidden twists. I enjoyed it. But it is absolutely not for everyone. I'm curious about Mr. Parker's work now! I hope to see whatever he makes next if he's able to obtain a larger budget.Peace.