Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Lazarus Project (2008) Film Review

Plot Summary - Psychological thriller about Ben Garvey (Paul Walker), ex-con who gets fired from his job at a Dallas brewery because they find out about his past criminal record. He hooks up with his bad news brother, recently released from a Florida prison (what's wrong with these two?), and they commit a robbery which goes wrong, resulting in the deaths of three men. Much sooner than you think, Ben is executed by lethal injection for the crime. And suddenly he's walking along a rainy road in small town Oregon on his way to new job as groundskeeper at "Mount Angel", some sort of old psychiatric hospital in the woods, located in a big building once erected by priests. Ben is told he's being given a second chance, but he can't ever leave - but he's desperate to get back home to the wife and little girl he left behind. Is he alive, is he dead, what the heck is going on here - ah, that's the mystery!

Review - Okay, this was pretty good - a mysterious film that left me wondering. I'm not going to say much more about the film, so as not to reveal any potential spoiler. Linda Cardellini appears in this as a woman he befriends in the hospital grounds, I didn't recognize her as the star I know so well from Freaks and Geeks until more than halfway through the film (and then it was by her voice). No hint in the film about why this is called "The Lazarus Project", just part of the mystery I guess. Rating - 7 to 8/10 stars

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