Haven (2006)

Writer/director Frank E. Flowers makes "Haven" in the disjointed, jumped-up style resembling his production team's more successful "Crash", which is supposed to be this film's selling point. But, "Haven" only emphasizes what goes wrong with this type of picture. Instead of fresh, it's frazzled. As the story lines wobble around, the cameras leave a relatively engaging Victor Rasuk (as Fritz).Then, reminding you of "Crash" connections, the film's hooded "Romeo and Juliet" storyline takes hold. "On the idyllic shores of the Cayman Islands, Shy (Orlando Bloom) and Andrea (Zoe Saldana) share a secret her parents can never know - they are in love. But a night of passion leads to the discovery of their secret and a devastating act of vengeance by Andrea's brother (Anthony Mackie)."Meanwhile, a shady American businessman (Bill Paxton) has fled with his daughter to the Islands to avoid federal prosecution, only to be drawn into a dangerous web of deceit. As lives intersect and truths are revealed, a chain reaction of violence is set in motion that will determine whether love can survive the fall of paradise," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis. It all ends by… stopping.**** Haven (9/11/04) Frank E. Flowers ~ Orlando Bloom, Zoe Saldana, Bill Paxton, Victor Rasuk

After reading the great praise for this incredibly horrendous film by most of the members here, I got so freaked thinking I had a brain tumor or something worse, that I went back and read 42 film critiques take on this piece of junk, and not ONE disagreed with me.Most of them dug a deeper hole and those who didn't, missed a few of the errors which all of the naysayers here had included...I have never done this and was so grateful for the opportunity to stick to my guns and remind myself that most people have absolutely no idea about the film-making process,and to add to that, no taste. Set in what should be a fascinating locale, the Cayman Islands, whose main industry or purpose is supposed to be a place where billions of dollars are secreted away for all kinds of reasons by all kinds and types of moneymakers and, to my recollection, has never been used as a location for a film before. The story line is a pretty basic one which starts out as Bill Paxton is making a hasty departure for not all too clear reasons. There then follows a collection of sub plots which are intermingled and even have nothing to do with Paxton's dilemma. There are children of crooks, and children of locals who cause havoc and trouble within the story as we follow a young man named "Shy" who works doing simple tasks at the local yacht harbor, and makes the mistake of having a tryst with a powerful man's daughter whose brother punishes with the old acid in the face retribution. From there, all of the artsy editing and time jumping back and forth becomes so irritating that you do not know what line of crime is the one which is supposed to grab you. Not one got to me and the one thing I am really curious about; what are the Cayman Islands like geographically and culturally? It could easily have been filmed in Beverly Hills and Malibu, or for my tastes, not at all. Orlando Bloom is not strong enough to carry a film and for those who think he is astonishingly handsome and dashing, must be teens or fans left over from his luck being cast in "Pirates" and that other series of blockbusters.Altogether,this film is a contrived and artless mess.Also, it seems that there were a lot of people here who were at the same screening in Toronto and ALL seemed to love it including a brother in law of the director.

I decided to rent this movie to see if Orlando Bloom had any talent with being someone other than an action hero with a sword. I was surprised when his performance in Haven was pretty good. I actually felt for his character. The story line was impressive and it was nice to watch a small film with a good story that wasn't filled with tons of big name actors. At times it was hard to follow what was going on within the time frame. Some of the film was four months prior to the two key days in the film. There were some points in which the story was predictable but hardly, and there are some characters in which I couldn't figure out their actions. But Frank E. Flowers did a great job for such a young man, and Orlando Bloom deserves a well earned hats off for his performance.

I thought I had written a review of this travesty of a movie.There was absolutely nothing worthwhile in it . I agree with the last reviewer its too much nose candy.They use a hand held camera to the extreme, I have seen better hand held camera work on "youtube."The acting is second rate by a well known cast.I will not insult them by naming them, same for the director & writer.This was filmed on the beautiful Cayman Islands,It should have been done on the Santa Monica beach, that is how much it looked like the Caymans.Rating * (out of 4) 25 points (out of 100) IMDb 1 (out of 10)