The Unsaid (2001)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Blistering performances.

This is one of those movies that can really become a therapeutic reality and an unexpected shock. it has been said, the earlier the trauma, the more difficult it is to unpack and deal with. If a shadow has a controlling lock on your life, then it needs to be brought to light. The challenge is going through the pain. Unless you or I have a supportive system, we most likely will never deal with those demons inside. This movie brilliantly shows how sexual sin can leave one highly disturbed and often missed by even those closest to us, namely family. And it is here the message is so powerful. How well do you know the people in your life? How much courage do you have to look at the behavioral signs of those closest to you and ask some very difficult questions? We are quick to say, "I love you?" but very slow to make the effort to look beneath the surface. You can't impart what you don't possess. One of the most powerful films ever made for its subject matter!

Direct to video release produced and starring Andy Garcia. Also starring Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men) and Linda Cadellini (Freaks and Geeks).Definitely a melodrama, slow moving but with some interesting plot points. Vincent Kartheiser is good as the troubled young man, playing both creepy and vulnerable. A young Linda Cardellini is beautiful as always and as anyone who saw Freaks and Geeks knows is excellent as portraying a realistic teenager. She also sings a song. Andy Garcia is a bit subdued but realistic enough in the main role.Overall it's fairly middling. Overly melodramatic at times and the ending is poor. Honestly I enjoyed it mostly because of seeing a few more famous actor's (Kartheiser and Cardellini)in an early role.It's a 2:00 AM on a cable kind of a movie. Not terrible, but not exactly good

Even though this movie was clearly made with a small budget, it looked very promising to me. I was almost certain that this would be such a movie with a disturbingly realistic subject, that goes right to and through your heart like a knife ... but it didn't. I'm not saying it was a bad movie, it just wasn't that good.The subject on itself isn't bad though. A young boy is kept in an institution because he saw his mom being murdered by his own father. Since then he hasn't shown much emotions and hasn't spoken about the incident. When Dr. Michael Hunter, a retired college professor and psychologist, examines the boy, he's convinced that they should keep him in the institution a bit longer because he isn't ready for the real world, that he might be a ticking time bomb. He starts working with the boy, in who he sees his own son who committed suicide a few years earlier, and gradually he is able to reveal the horrible truth...The acting in this movie isn't bad, but it wasn't great either. However, I guess you can't expect any better from a crew without many well-known names (Only Andy Garcia and Teri Polo I had heard of before seeing this movie, the rest of the cast was a complete mystery to me) and it has to be said, I've seen a lot worse in the past. The same can be said about the story which was OK, but not excellent. It was compelling, but somehow I missed something in it. Anyway, I'm already glad that it was a lot better than the average TV-movie that would deal with this subject. But if you want to see an excellent psychological thriller about this subject, than I suggest you watch "Primal Fear". That movie offers about the same story (murder, child abuse,...), but does it in a much better way. I give this movie a 6.5/10. It's worth a watch.

*May be Spoilers*This is one of those films you wish you could rewrite and/or reedit. It was good, but.........The film kept my interest, but it just tried to incorporate too many different angles. The whole thing with the Son was unnecessary. The story never fulfilled the connection. The Mystery behind Caffey's past and his relationship with Garcia's daughter added enough intensity to carry the film. The Motives regarding Caffey botching up his release from the institution could have been more justified if there was more focus on the relationship between him & the daughter. The Conversations with Caffey's Father & Garcia's character could have been more suspenseful by incorporating them through out the film. I also feel that Caffey's character could have mentally toyed with Garcia's character a little more.The twist at the end leaves you saying, "uh!" It was unexpected and uncommon to see that in films.Basically there were a lot of script flaws, but there were a lot of good aspects to the story. It was a slightly over done thriller, similar to those Lifetime films.The plot should have been more character driven, instead of being so episodic.Visually, it was less than cinematic. The style was reminiscent of a movie of the week. The performances were great, even though Caffey's character was a little tricky to pull off (due to the storyline), but the actor did a good job.It was a good film that fell short. It definitely had the potential to be a lot better.