Undermind (2003)

Very good acting and a very good script. I'd say an excellent script except for one blaring omission...What triggered the switch? And the fact we were twenty minutes into the movie before the switch occurred. The switch should have occurred at least 3 minutes earlier and needed something to trigger it. Just happening isn't really acceptable in Hollywood or Indiewood. It causes you to stop watching and enjoying and start asking "what the heck's going on here" and it's not a what the heck in a good sense but a distracting sense. The trigger could have been as simple as a more heated debate with his mother, an overdose on a psychotropic drug, (he was seeing a shrink). The absence of cause drew as much attention as the presence of a clown selling jewelry would have. It broke the moment, then it took several minutes to get back into the movie.Other than that one oopses the rest of the movie was great. The interplay between the two realities was outstanding and the message "Walk a mile in my shoes" was very potent. The Violent world was implied and did not demand on an over abundance of death and mayhem to instill a sense of danger. It worked very well. As did the limited nudity…enough but not too much.Recommended viewing.

Hollywood has made more than a few movies where two character somehow swap lives for a time and have to adjust. This is one of the best of the genre. The main characters who end up swapping lives are both 20's, male and have lost their fathers. They differ by being on opposite sides of the legal system, if not societal life altogether. Its almost like two universes only slightly different. Similar people in both doing similar things, but the main character's lives couldn't be more different. The binding similarity between the two universes, was an oath a similar character takes towards the main characters' respective fathers. Of course the "action" universe, where he's in the midst of a very criminal life, is flashier and gets more development, and rightfully so. This story was just told so well. Its been polished and fine tuned and has excellent pace. Just when you've about had it with a whiny mother, the character has too. Everyone was very realistic. There were some nice little details, all print and writing was backwards in the "action" universe, helping guide you through scenes. You have to watch carefully to and absorb what is happening. Try predicting what's next and you'll just be surprised, not by shock, but from genius. The violence is very limited, mostly ketchup on sweaters, no great car chases, just one car blowup. This is not Hollywood.Watch it again and you get more from it. The ending had a nice surprise, but the movie didn't need saving by a big ending. How this movie hasn't gotten more press is a shame. Everyone involved in this project deserves congratulations.

I saw this at Santa Barbara's film festival and was very surprised. Kind of like Memento but in a way more fascinating. Not entirely sure it all made sense, but it could just be me. But, I AM sure that Sam Trammel is very hot and has real star quality. FAscinating movie.

I saw this at the Stony Brook Film Festival on Long Island New York and was generally pleased with it. It split first place in the Jury Awards there and made a close run for Audience Choice as well.It takes two characters and basically switches them, giving each a glimpse into the possibilities of parallel existances. Derrick,a spoiled upper crust New Yorker, and Zane, a street thug, are quite opposite but somehow make the mind switch and wind up making do in each other's lives. My main problem with the film was that there was no mechanism for the switch. It was nicely filmed and nicely acted with each of the personalities being likeable and despicable in appropriate doses. The filming of the duality of parallel worlds was quite creative.