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Mind Games is a criminal thriller that came out in 2001 set in the UK with Fiona Shaw playing a criminal profiler. At the moment, it is being streamed on Acorn TV. It is entertaining to watch and one of the few films where I saw Fiona Shaw as the lead character.
Shaw’s character Frances O’Neil was a nun, now she is establishing herself as a leading profiler. She is pulled in for an investigation that seems to be the work of a serial killer.
The case is in the hands of DCI Chris Medwynter (Finbar Lynch) who has little regard for Frances O’Neil. She isn’t well liked by the rest of the officers on the case who flow her with insults claiming that she is the fledging nun or the flying nun. To my surprise, O’Neil is asked by DC Rebecca Longton (Lisa Palfrey) if they can collaborate.
Before long, O’Neil begins to demonstrate her value and talent, proving he was right several times over. However, it is unfortunate that his talent does not come early enough to save him from an uncomfortable predicament prior to the arrest of the killer.
One of the intriguing aspects of a 17 year old film is the year it was produced. The pathologist Dr. Ward (Sara Kestelman) has some concepts regarding DNA that even from this perspective seem silly. But Dr. Ward is one of the select people from the film who has known Frances O’Neil and understands her genius.
One of the intriguing aspects of a 17 year old film is the age of the actors. A very young looking Chiwetel Ejiofor plays one of the characters, and he has since then outshone everyone in the cast. Any fan of Killing Eve knows how perfectly Fiona Shaw fits into the role. And she was just as brilliant in Mind Games.
The creator of Mind Games is Lynda La Plante, who is also the creator of Prime Suspect. For all that are already familiar with her more mainstreamed Prime Suspect, La Plante is not shy using her pen to fight against relevant social issues. Mind Games exactly falls into that.
This is not the best movie of all time but it is always a jolly good time watching the Brits do what they do best. If you have Acorn tv, do check it out and tell me what your throught were. After all these years, when I first saw Pink Floyd’s The Wall, which was in the late 80s. My brain already had substances filled in them. The old gray matter always comes around to have fun. With the work of Jabert Brothers, the filmmakers certainly put my gray matter in a twisted state and turned it into play doh. Mind Games, the thriller feature, began production with a collaboration from the Brother as well as Higher Terrain Entertainment, This thriller feature bore jet Andrea, Robert Lasardo and Michael Pare.
For motives undisclosed, a man has grabbed an army therapist and loaded her into an RV. From there, the man has taken the armed therapist to an undiscovered location in the depths of Florida. Considered to be a mental game, the man forces a mental and psychological stake on the therapist. Trying to tighten the grip on her before the woman runs out of time on her life, the therapist manipulates everything in her arsenal against her captor.
Flordia’s stunning landscapes serve as the canvas for Jake Jalbert’s film; it uses restrained techniques that are commonly absent in large Hollywood productions. The film focuses on the lines, immersing the viewer more than it would a traditional big name studio thriller. That’s right and rather than contain Jalbert character-focused film, it employs sparse experimental theater. In any case, he has the audience’s attention, which is vital for his film just like his characters’ vocal sparring. Yes, it’s a tad painful having to sit through the exposition, but the half-baked dialogue gives away more than you think. In the end, he confident movie go of uneasy perception is scoped and all that they have to do is sit back and let the manipulation of reality unfold, that is the beauty of his cinematography.
Tara is portrayed to perfection by Jet Jandreau, who wears her feelings on her sleeve like very few actors that I have seen. Without losing the attention of the audience, that is a very important tool to have if you are the one carrying the movie for most of the runtime. Roughly, Jandreau is in about ninety-eight percent of the film. If she chooses to underplay her charm, the viewers of the cinema begin to switch off in their hundreds. I absorbed, for instance, every single instant of trepidation, rage, and the pale emotional uncertainty that comes through a voice which is extraordinarily deep. In addition to that, we must not forget that Lazaro is every bit her match for the role of the kidnapper which I, undoubtedly, did not. He is superbly portrayed; the combination of steely-eyed poise with haunted looks is on full display.
The 57-year-old has a soft-spoken voice which seems to reveal a glimpse the character he plays, and the demons that drives him. Having been in the movie industry for quite some time, I believe Pare is a B-list veteran because what Generation X kid doesn’t had watched sometimes during the classic 1980s. A positive factor is that you still see him having an intense presence even when the scene does not require him to have too much focus. I can say he was a great addition to the supporting cast as he plays the role of Tara’s boyfriend who is a doctor and gets majorly involved in the entire mess. I must admit, Cal does have that clean cut look which makes him a little easier on the eyes, but there is still some intrigue to look deeper into the mystery he possesses. Together with Bruce W. Durbin, the notorious yet sophisticated strategic convincing dialogue was cleverly crafted by Lau so that every fan’s expectations could be met even in the absence of action. Every time I watch the movie I always look out for that scene where Bruce LaSardo attempts to have Tara rehearse how everyday dinner conversations between married couples go while the women have some ‘psychiatric’ outputting. The role I must admit is really great for the actor.
The locations in Seminole, Florida surely mask the lower end production value pretty well on this one. Instead of the housing development and mini-mall off in the distance, the profuse, luxuriant greenery where they set the RV helps to evoke a sense of remote seclusion. The 17 day shoot, from May 13 to May 30, 2020, exemplifies the guerilla style of cinema and clearly showcases the efficient methods the Jalberts so easily exude. This is indeed refreshing in this age of 500 film crew members and frequently years of production time. When it comes to the novel approach, I bet the tradeoff for the excruciating boredom, if you are a filmmaker, is having a $200 million dollar budget to spend on a blockbuster major release. But, it feels wonderful to have the focus of the stripped-down bare forgets that brilliance. Most of the time, however, there are far too many gargantuan epics that lose track of that wonder. Luckily for us, we are supported by indie talents like the Jalberts who never fail to remind us of the bliss of being minimalistic, along with the nightmare inducing chillers that it can give.
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