So basically what I hear you saying is that within 30 minutes of the movie, you knew it was a group of people from the year 2004 who met at a counseling center because they all had had major traumas (murders)in their lives and they established this settlement as a way of "hermetically" sealing themselves off from the rest of civilization????? Honestly, not to hurt your feelings, but I don't buy it. I'd be curious though to see what kind of foreshadowing or clues you saw (that I obviously didn't) that allowed you to leap to this point. I may just be astounded.
Oh and you made a good point about my not expressing my reasons for liking the movie. I will tell you why I liked it. I liked the scenery and the filmmaking in general. I liked the brooding sense of the movie. I also liked that it wasn't scary (e.g. I had to hide my eyes in Sixth Sense) since I'm a little bit of a scaredy cat. I thought the acting was good (Brody, Phoenix and Howard) and I was totally surprised at the twist at the end.
Take care.
Oh and you made a good point about my not expressing my reasons for liking the movie. I will tell you why I liked it. I liked the scenery and the filmmaking in general. I liked the brooding sense of the movie. I also liked that it wasn't scary (e.g. I had to hide my eyes in Sixth Sense) since I'm a little bit of a scaredy cat. I thought the acting was good (Brody, Phoenix and Howard) and I was totally surprised at the twist at the end.
Let me address the last part first; some of the things you liked about the movie I did too. In particular I liked Howard's character and her acting. I also Liked the character she was to marry (Luscious?). Unfortunately they were not sufficient to salvage the things that just didn't cut it for me.
You are correct, I didn't guess that it was a group of people from the year 2004 who met at a counseling center because they all had had major traumas (murders)in their lives and they established this settlement as a way of "hermetically" sealing themselves off from the rest of civilization but I did guess that the movie was taking place in the present time. The discussions about going to the towns for "medicines" was my key clue. In the time frame of the village the medicines available to the towns would have been just as available to them. But I got the distinct impression from the early conversations by the elders that they KNEW there was medicine available elsewhere that could help them. An unlikely speculation on their part if their ~21 year time away was in the 1700's but it made much sense if the year was 2004.
You seem unable to marshal a rebuttal to the specific criticisms I have posted. I'm also "guessing", based on your hair splitting, your failure to deal with the specific criticisms and your relatively vague comments about what you did like about the movie, that you "just liked it". That's fine - really. For you it was $ well spent. For me it was not. Just don't tell me (or imply) that I should have liked it, or that I'm a liar. Try debating the issues rather than making personal attacks and I may just be the one who is astounded.