Black Pond (2011)

Black Pond is an adventurous offering from first-time directors on a small budget.

[Will] Sharpe's writing is full of stunning one-liners, insightful tangents and Freudian slips.

Langham's performance may not rehabilitate his career. Perhaps nothing could do that. But Black Pond is really good: haunting, melancholy and strange.

This movie would've been better if the story was a little more focused because, there comes a time, when the most important character in moving the story forward, Blake, disappears only to be seen at the climax of the film where everything that led to the family becoming maligned in the media happens. I still thought this film was pretty good with plenty of darkly comic moments. The film really is very strange to watch, but I believe that is actually one of the positives about the film. The strangeness and seeing how this seemingly normal family, incredibly dysfunctional but normal, is cornered by a man wishing to die because he believes the family's dog is the reincarnation of his dead wife. So you can see where the strangeness comes into play. While Blake is there for a lot of the film, the story is mostly about the family and how it's falling apart at the seams. There's interviews with the 'real people' after the fact interspersed with the footage of everything that led up to the incident. The film is also a little messy, and again, I think that's part of its charm. It's certainly not a perfect movie, but it's a movie that has some pretty interesting ideas and concepts, combined with the good cast and a good script makes this a solid watch, if nothing else.