Reviews

Wow. This film is so wholesome and beautiful it broke my heart. I wasnt aware that this was a short film on YouTube 12 years ago so after finishing the feature I went and watched the YT one. I gotta say this is one of the most creative films I've seen this year. The whole story of Marcel the shell is so heartwarming but also sad at the same time. The message that I got from it is to look beauty in the little things just like Marcel and to see him caring about his grandmother was so touching. You could almost feel as if they were real and you could feel how much they meant to eachother. The comedy in it is also brilliant. Kudos to Jenny Slate because the voice really gives it that heartwarming feel. Marcel is so tiny and the voice matches it, it was almost like I was hearing a 6 year old voice it and not a grown woman. I just love how unique this film is and I do hope it gets and Oscar, I'm glad it is nominated at least. The scene when he finally reunites with his family broke me down. Amazing stuff.

This is a good film with well executed suspense but it missed some marks for me that could've made the film far better. The acting was good, cinematography solid, all the elements of a suspense thriller were there but some things have bothered me while watching.

First of all. Whose story are we even following? Who is the lead? So in the first part of the film it looks like Toby is going to be a protagonist. We get to witness his rocky relationship with his mom, his rebellion and he is the one who finds out Hector's secret. But then he is, I guess, killed off screen very early in the film.

That didn't bother me that much because his mother Liz then started to suspect Hector and investigate him so they made the audience believe that it's Liz who is going to bring Hector to justice and defeat him. But she gets caught in the easiest way and also get killed (I guess) off screen. That decision was a bit stupid for me.

Then Jay tries his shot at finding out the truth. So, he decides to follow Hector to his new house and from there I couldn't really understand what was his plan exactly? He came masked without any weapon and takes Hector's racket and they start fighting. That was weird since he didn't even get the answers from Hector about what had he done with Toby and Liz.

Then at the end of the film Jay finds the same guy that Toby found at the beginning of the film in a garage of Hector's house and calls the police. So, who was the guy? That is never explained. It is not that Ravi guy because Ravi would've been much older. And how did Hector even transport the guy from one house to another without him trying to escape or without anybody noticing? And why didn't Hector kill that guy since he killed Toby, Iranian guy and Liz? What use is that guy to Hector? Also, Jay didn't get the answer at the end. He didn't get anything. There are no evidence that Hector killed Toby and Liz that police can find. The house that he commited those crimes in is empty and sold and he got rid of the physical evidence. If you are a police officer there is literally no concrete evidence agaist him unless he confesses.

Also, as a crime story enthusiast, I love to see some back story of the criminals to make us see why and how did they become like that. We get none of that in the film. We only find out a little bit of Hector's childhood in three minutes of the film.

So, to conclude. It is a good film but these things made it harder to really appreciate it and made it a little bit confusing. The 'I came by' graffiti at the end by Jay was a nice touch though but there are a lot of unanswered questions left.

Wathcing the trailer for this I kinda already knew this is going to be a bad film. And I was not disappointed. This is hands down one of the worst films I've seen in my life. Every single person envolved in this film should reconsider their careers. The script is just nonsense and the plot is stupid to put it mildly. I only wanted to see it bcause it is shot in my home country and in the city close to where I grew up. So take it from me, this film did not do any research. First of all, every Croat depicted in the film speaks totally different accent than people in the region where the film was shot. Second of all, Croatia is not a multicultural country, we're 99% white so there are not a lot of Asians, Black people, Arabs. If there are, there are usually tourists. Yet in this film, the taxi driver is Syrian, the doctor in the Croatian hospital is Asian and the mortician is black. This is not a matter of representation but a bad casting. Third of all, there are so many things not explained in this film. For example her friend dies and she has to take care of her funeral and stuff, she didn't even notify the family and we weren't even told if she has a family. Then the taxi driver is always there and seems to never be working. Fourth of all, her firend died in Croatia, different country to where she is from, she is from England so shouldn't London police be involved in the investigation? We get none of that. Fifth of all, the entire plot is revolved around finding out the killer and when we do find out it is the most anti climactic reveal ever. The best part of the film is when the police officer dies the funniest way possible. I laughed so much. The only good thing about this film are some beautiful shot of the scenery, other than that the cinematography is awful and not very clever. The acting is average. I expected more from Leighton Meester. I thought see is a good actress. Why did she take a role in this film? Does she need money?