The Broken

Gina McVey (Lena Headey) is a hospital radiologist living in London. One fateful day after work, Gina thinks she sees a woman who looks exactly like her drive by in a Jeep identical to her own. This seemingly chance meeting with her doppleganger sends Gina on a hunt to track down her mysterious twin. When her search is interrupted by a horrific car crash, Gina must grapple with her hazy memory to arrive at the truth of the matter. Gina soon suspects that those closest to her are not entirely what they seem. At the center of this speculation is her fiancée Stefan, whose personality has completely changed overnight. What is that strange leak in the bathroom ceiling? And why is Stefan so secretive about what's in the attic of his apartment?

I'm really torn about The Broken (2008). On the one hand, it's really well executed, technically speaking. Aside from a few minor lapses into terrible CGI, the film looks and sounds pretty good. While Guy Farley's score is adequate yet unoriginal, the overall sound design by Nigel Mills is quite well done. Most of the middle of the film is presented without music, and the importance of foley editing comes to the forefront. The enhanced sounds associated with mundane tasks become our lifeline, pulling us through the film and alongside Gina as she struggles to understand the events leading up to the crash. This is the kind of film that I admire for its ability to make every little thing significant. The camera pans at an angle to our framed character, slowly revealing more of the background behind them. Is that significant? We strain our eyes to the background, searching for the reason. Is someone sneaking up behind our heroine? No, not this time. But what about the next time? This sense of potential meaning extends to the brilliant use of sound. Why has the music been scaled back? Are the filmmakers cluing us in to pay attention to ambient sounds? What was that noise?? By infusing everything with potential meaning, every object with potential action, and every encounter with potential violence, the audience is kept on their toes for the entirety of the film. And that's a pretty big selling point for a thriller, I would think.

But putting aside its technical positives, this film is completely derivative. The concept of evil dopplegangers, the disorientation of questioning one's own identity, the prevalence of scenes set in the bathroom, the importance of mirrors, the underlying existential connotations of our reflections and our perception of ourselves, and slightly out of place, the resemblance of dopplegangers to Asian-style vengeful ghosts. The compilation of horror/thriller cliches becomes boring, and the central 'twist' of the film should be glaringly obvious in the first 20 minutes to anyone who's ever seen a thriller, particularly if you've ever seen or even heard about any films by M. Night Shyamalan, the one-time king of the twist. By the middle of the film, situations, sets, and shots are being recycled as the director runs out of room to run with his concept. Entire scenes are constructed around the ubiquitous mirrors, and it just seems that there are way too many mirrors; more mirrors than any human would realistically come in contact with in a given day. Why not just set the ending in a damn carnival funhouse?

Next time put this sound and editing crew together with a screenwriter and director with a few original ideas, and maybe we'll see something really good.

Storyline & plot: 3/10
Cinematography & effects: 6/10
Music & mood: 8/10
Performances: 6/10

The Reverend says: 5/10