Tri Hard

Time for another Netflix recommendation. This time it was a horror-thriller movie made just last year called Triangle. I'd never heard of it, and it turns out that's not too surprising, given the film's background. Financed in part by money from the UK Lottery, filmed in Australia, and shown only at film festivals before slipping out in the US on DVD, there really weren't any opportunities to see it until recently.

The "triangle" of the title is a loose reference to the Bermuda Triangle, though that's actually never mentioned by name in the film. Instead, there's a supernatural tale being told here, and the Triangle just happened to be a convenient place to set it. The audience would bring their knowledge of the stories about that area, fleshing out things that weren't actually important to the plot.

The plot? Well, here's as much as I'll say. A small group of people sail out from South Florida on a small yacht, and get caught in a freak storm that capsizes their vessel. They're hoping for rescue, when along comes a decades old ocean liner that they manage to board, only to find it completely abandoned... Except it may not be abandoned. Actually, there may or may not be a faceless stalker on board trying to kill them.

And the weird thing is, that only covers about the first 30 minutes. I'd love to say more, because that's where it starts to get really unusual. And really interesting. But I think part of the fun for me in watching the film was not actually knowing what the film was really going to be about, and I don't want to deprive anyone of that thrill. Honestly, the film might not even be worth seeing after that.

While the movie is very clever and intriguing, it's far from airtight in its plotting. Even as you're watching it, you'll catch yourself thinking, "now, wait a minute, that doesn't quite make sense." And the moment the credits roll, still more holes in the plot will keep occurring to you. Well, they did to me. But I also found that these realizations didn't really detract from the things I did like about the movie. There are definitely some creepy moments, and fun revelations. There are times when you're ahead of the movie and guess what will happen next, and that's fun; there are other times the movie surprises you, and that's fun too.

But I do wish there had been a stronger actress in the lead role. The main character of this film is played by Melissa George, whose (unfortunate) big claim to fame is that she came on to the third season of Alias, just as that awesome show began a freefall in terms of quality. Mind you, not all of it (or even most of it) was her fault; the writing took a nosedive after season two. But she also seemed like a stiff and limited actress on that show. She has improved some here. She isn't bad in this movie. But the story also requires her to really present multiple different aspects of her character, and I didn't find sufficient differentiation -- or credibility.

I wish I could speak more to what I did enjoy in the movie and focus less on the negatives, but I really think that giving out those details would spoil the fun. So I'll just sum up by saying that despite some shortcomings, I found it an enjoyable movie. I rate it a B-, and I'd recommend that people who like stories with a supernatural/sci-fi touch should check it out. (If only for the selfish reason that then, I could have someone to discuss the movie with in more detail!)