DVD Red Siren

THE STORY is about a girl Alice (Negrao) who seeks for a help in a police detective Anita (Argento). Alice claims: "My mother, she kills people," and she shows a video which shows a woman brutally tortured and killed. The complication is, the "snuff" video could be a fake, and Alice's mother Eva (intentionally campy Barber) belongs to a very influential family.

Anyway, the compassionate detective starts to investigate while Alice accidentally finds another help in an ex-soldier named Hugo (Barr). Alice wants to escape from her dreadful mom, and see her kind-hearted dad living in Portugal (so she says), so Hugo takes her out, driving to the south, but Alice's mother and her men are following them, no matter what method they have to take, even guns or somthing.

The film is beatifully shot, with some technically impressive moments. But M. Megaton, I think, often forgets to tell the story, and the film goes on too long (2 hrs.). The characters are not well-drawn, all too paper-thin, and the actions or the settings, though they are decent and potentailly interesting, sometimes remind us of another film like "The Professional" (alt. title "Leon") starring Natalie Portman and Jean Reno, the latter being with Barr in "The Big Blue."

I have never read the original book, but it is clear that the original had fairy tale themes at its subliminal level. The film fails to make use of them fully, in spite of the name "Alice" (of course, in Wonderland) or Frances Barber's character (with a strange haircut), which clearly suggests the "evil mother" image in "Snow White." Interesting fact: the film's adaptation is done by, besides Megaton himself, US sci-fi novelist Norman Spinrad, and Alain Berliner ("Ma Vie en Rose"). What were they doing?

I thought the acting is good, though Asia Aregento's role is not as substantial as it looks at first. Barr is great as always is, but the slow, very slow pace of the film is quite damaging. The film has its some great moments -- especially the gun-shooting scenes in the middle -- but you have to wait for it pretty long.