The Hide (2008)

Excellent and surprisingly engaging for a slow two man play.It is a pleasure to see films made in such limited spaces with just two performers convincingly delivering the excellent script. The director manages to keep the viewer engaged and somehow the tension increases despite the potential limitations.Enjoyable throughout.

what i was immediately reminded of when watching this excellent film,was iain banks the wasp factory.not just the bleak windswept location, but the calm but psychotic protagonist.a film about birdwatching shouldn't have you gripped from start to finnish.this certainly does,its best to go in blind for this one,so i wont say too much of what transpires.that way the viewer sees a calm almost nerdish twitcher with something totally unsettling about him.set entirely in one locale, this film shouldn't work but i think its one of the best thrillers,of the last few years.the dark secrets that lurk inside all of us even the most seemingly normal people are revealed .this film will stick with you long after its over and if your like me a repeat viewing is a must .funny disturbing and at just over an hour doesn't overstay its welcome.excellent.

"The Hide" will split audiences in two. It's not well known because it's British, it's low budget and only uses two actors in the same place for the entire film. This may bore some people, but it may also captivate others. I'm a bit of both.When I realised that the whole film was going to be in one room the whole time, I thought that they must use flashbacks or something like in "Saw" otherwise it could become as dull as "Conversation's With Other Women". To my surprise, no flashback's were used (unless you count the mild flicks of the crows) and it relied completely on conversation. Did I like this? Actually, yeah, I did. I admire brave film making and ideas, this is something that is rarely done and it does rarely work, but this time it did thanks to the funny dialogue it did become quite absorbing.However, I did find myself nodding off in some moments, getting a bit fed up with the concept, that is until the surprise twist that immediately lifted the film off the ground, turning the last half-hour into a tense showcase with an ending that was clever and that I never saw coming. What good films do to the audience is lead them and then jump out, tricking them.I must also comment on the look of the film, it looked fabulous with its gritty, drained colours that polluted the screen, it made the conversation atmospheric. This is a debut I believe and I can see this director doing a few hits after this one. The actors were great, I laughed out loud at times where the conversation was particularly amusing. "Conversations With Other Women". This is how it should be done.The simplicity is interesting, I think that it would make an excellent play as it's all in "real time" and relies on only two actors. I can see a lot of people feeling restless, but I liked this enough to give it a 7/10. That's not too bad is it.

Must be incredibly difficult to create a script that holds an audiences attention with only two actors and a interior and exterior location. Plus one of those characters having to portray a quiet menacing stranger.To compensate the other character is a chatterbox nerdy type who if I'm being picky plays a stereotypical nerd (only the classic nerdy voice is missing) when a greater challenge might have been to give us perhaps a variation on that theme. As we find out towards the end of the film he is not completely what he seems so maybe a couple of subtle clues that his character had moved on from being obsessed with the banal might have been fun. (If they're in there and I've missed them I apologise!) The resolution is a bit desperate but with only two characters when it is not? I have to admit I laughed out loud when the dynamite bomb was pulled out of the bag - not the effect the film maker was after, me thinks.Still I'll recommend it to anybody interested.