The Keeping Room Movie Download

8 / 10

Near perfect Civil War era thriller, save for a significant detail
This is a near perfect film, brilliantly cast, played and directed, great framing of shots, and easily and quickly managing to persuade the audience that these are girls we can admire and respect. It is a thriller, or at least it was for me, as there is a sense of approaching storm in the two rogue soldiers, established from the get go, and from then on an escalating number of edge of your seat moments. Great tension throughout, but there is a flaw, for me, in the build up. It may have been deliberate, but for me it was inexcusable, and I was thus forced to dock this haunting tale a couple of stars. It involves the fact that prior warning had been given to the girls well before hell descended upon them and yet they were woefully, inexplicably, and unbelievably unprepared for it. There is scene where the lead girl goes to a nearby drinking house for medicine, badly needed for her sister. She walks into a scene of terror. Other inhabitants save the bartender and his wife are all gone. The rogue soldiers are there with their vicious dog and the barman and wife are obviously in terror. One rogue soldier goggles the girl at the bar. With a clever bravado the girl manages, with help, to escape through a window, mount a horse, just in time to challenge the two rogues as she’s about to leave. There’s a stand off. She gets away but it’s pretty clear the barman and wife may be doomed. It is a time of war. When the girl gets home she has all the time in the world to prepare better should the rogues follow her. But she doesn’t. For me this oversight or plot tension dimension, or whatever it was, was just too ludicrous to completely forgive. Perhaps my dvd version of the film differed from the theatre version. Don’t get me wrong, aside from this in discrepancy there was literally nothing wrong with the movie for me. It perfectly captures all the danger of an approaching army to the countryside. The authenticity of the African girl, and the amazingly apt soundtrack blew me away. I will always mention this movie with the same reverence I have for Cold Mountain or Glory as brilliant examples of Civil War drama. And as a general statement on war The Keeping Room is probably even better than those two classics.Read More