Unspeakable (2003)

Diana (Dina Meyer) is testing a brain-scan device to reveal what's going on in the head of the psychopathic killer Jesse (Pavan Grover). She suspects him to be responsible for a murder that Cesar (Marco Rodriguez) was executed for. The prison director, played in a not much less psychopathic way by Dennis Hopper, doesn't really care as long as there's another execution soon.What begins as a dark psychological thriller turns into an aimless flight through horror (the return of the undead), mystery (has the killer supernatural powers?), sci-fi (the brain scanning), dreams, courtroom drama and more. Personally, I have the impression that the makers of the film couldn't agree on the direction they were heading towards, so they ended up with a little bit of everything, pieces of a puzzle which do not fit. It's a pity for the good actors and a couple of exciting moments.

I thought the story was excellent, I liked the movie a lot. Pavan's story was amazing... it's truly "unspeakable"! Although some might not have liked the movie, but thats up to the director.. if he (thomas wright) hadn't edited so much of Pavan's work then it would have been a smashing hit in the box-office. I'm really excited of Pavan's work. He's displayed a lot of anger and darkness towards his own character that he wrote and played, that's what makes his work more interesting. I love writing too, I think it's a form of escape... from the world ... your own world... his story really appealed to me. A story like his was always in my mind ... amazing. I'd really love to meet him one day... one day ... Keep up the great work!! -taryn

Hollywood today is sort of the democratic party's propaganda machine. While the business world finally realized that serving & pleasing the customer is the idea, the American media still obsesses with messaging us to death, reasoning, where else can we go for visual content?Thus comes this, trying to feature all the right bases. In fact,we're lucky it was made before gays took over; most films now have to have at least one gay scene, no matter how stupid. Anyway, you can feel this trying to be a movie. The sexual excitement as the two psychos (on either side of the cell bars) turn each other on with their intense chitchat and his endeavoring to touch her. And his evil strength, tossing guards everywhere, gives us good menace to fear. Then it fails. Real guards would chain his legs after getting beat up several times. These just keep getting beat. And after the killer shows great mental powers by killing all the men in his path and escaping, he realizes the movie is going to end so he lets the girl shoot him so we don't get the would-be-delicious con-mentally-overpowers-stupid-but-gorgeous-scientist-and screws her as she gasps don't, while stripping.Add in the innocent (of course) executed con. Vicous warden. Crying mom makes a brief appearance. It's kinda fun that these people seemingly wander in and out during the executions, where real ones take all the fun out and restrict 'em to death (so to speak). The movie throws in a few more cardboard cutouts; the gov, his advisers, a judge the evil guy mentally forces to kill himself. All these get a little screen time, then off for the next CC's. The psycho girl finds her aborted baby's grave, I guess. Why? I dunno. Why not? She already somehow is the only one who knows how to build a mind past-and-future memory film making gizmo that nobody except her seems interested in. How would a psycho know how to build one, anyway? Most psychs become one because there's nothing easier in college. Oh well, throw it in. Is it soup yet?

Valuable life lesson: You can't always judge a book by its cover. Usually that means beautiful things may be hidden by a ugly exterior. In the case of 'Unspeakable' it is the exact opposite. It actually hurts to write the following review because it pretty much admits I'm a superficial person who was suckered into watching a movie that was stashed in the box and write-up of a much more interesting looking film.'Unspeakable' is a very nearly perfect storm of bad movie-making. Hampered by any number of problems, one of the worst is a ham-handed anti-capital punishment message that tries to put a human face on the issue. The problem is that it has a lot of competition and 'Unspeakable' does not stand up very well to it. In fact, it doesn't stand up well in a light breeze. Granted many movies aren't going to compare favourably to 'The Green Mile,' but in 'The Green Mile' similar themes are dealt with. Prisoners in 'The Green Mile' are treated compassionately and it becomes deeply effective in decrying capital punishment through the actions of a sadistically incompetent guard. In comparison, every guard in 'Unspeakable' is both sadistic and incompetent. The problem is that the film seems to believe that if one mean guard is good, 100 mean guards will be great. This, I assure you, isn't the case. If you were going for satire it might work. The tragedy (for the film makers -- and comedy for us) is that it takes itself extremely seriously and begins to implode at every opening.Pavan Grover wrote the screenplay and there are glimpses of good ideas. There is an unfriendly look at religion, the nature of good and evil, the capacity for cruelty and the psychological and philosophical motivations for it. Finding these blurred and hidden themes though isn't worth the effort. There are clever aphorisms scattered like breadcrumbs for Hansel and Gretel but they don't lead anywhere.I already mentioned 'The Green Mile' and that it is one of at least three superior films that 'Unspeakable' unsuccessfully compares itself to. From 'The Night of the Hunter' comes the tattooed knuckles of love and hate as well as an attempt at the cool charisma and menace of Robert Mitchum. From 'The Silence of the Lambs' there comes a psychiatrist and serial killer playing an information game.There are many failures that contribute to 'Unspeakable' and its near total collapse. The dialogue is comically horrendous. The music sounds like the theme song for clowns at a carnival and it plays with full comic effect. As weak as the Grover driven script is, the Grover driven performance is even worse. He's dreadful and it spreads through the rest of the cast like a virus. The director needs to take some of the blame for his failure to reign in the actors and the script (although when your lead actor is also the writer and the producer ...). It is a vision less and clunky mess. The only bright light is Lance Henrickson. No matter how bad the film, he always approaches it with stoic and reliable professionalism. I'm amazed he didn't get swept up like Dennis Hopper and Jeff Fahey in the sea of bad things. Fahey turns in at best a bemused performance and is clearly remembering the good old days.There was an exchange of dialogue near the end of the film between Henrickson and Meyer.H: "You were really fascinated by him weren't you?" M: "Yeah, grotesquely fascinated. I probably could have studied him for years." H : "Yeah, but at what cost to your psyche?"That's really what 'Unspeakable' is all about. Yeah, you could watch it. But at what cost to your psyche?Lance Henrickson is far too good for a movie like this. Dennis Hopper is too good for a movie like this. Dina Meyer is too good for a movie like this. Jeff Fahey, I repeat, Jeff Fahey is too good for a movie like this. And let's be honest: you and I are too good for this. Life is too short. Go hug your kids and promise to protect them from all the bad things in the world. Start with 'Unspeakable' and you could do a lot worse. Take my word for it and avoid this dog at all costs.