MOVIE REVIEW: The Giant

P Hayden

4 years ago

”˜Dynamic and Disturbing!“

Charlotte (Odessa Young) loses her mother in a horrific manner which obviously affects her massively. She still manages to graduate school and carry on which shows huge strength in her character, her ex- boyfriend Joe (Ben Schnetzer) returns to just as a bout of deaths occur terrifying the town.

I knew from the opening minutes that this was going to be a film that would leave me feeling a bit mentally scarred. The jarring shots coupled with disturbing background noises built to a harrowing moment that genuinely made me say a swear word out loud! Shock factor ”“ Check!

The jump into the next shot was wonderful, the contrast with the sunlight was brilliant yet keeping the sense of sorrow was definitely there. The use of silence was something that I enjoyed; I love music in movies but the fact that there was only a voiceover seemed to hold the scene perfectly. Lots of good old fashion eiery moments which rely on noise (or lack of at times) and actor reactions which I felt were on point. The use of lights throughout was another plus, often breaking and piercing the screen, I enjoy that visual a lot.

Odessa Young held the lead on this perfectly, she was brilliant as the broken and traumatised Charlotte. The whispering deliverance of many of her lines is one of the things that helped move many of the scenes forward. Ben Schnetzer is brilliant as Joe, with a dark feeling to his character yet a real sense of vulnerability when around Charlotte, they were dynamite on screen together. The rest of the cast was very strong too with Jack Kilmer, Madelyn Cline, Danny Ramirez and others knocking it out the park.

Director and Screen Writer David Raboy has created something truly disturbing from the very first scene!