Review of I Know Who Killed Me (2007) by Ehm C — 02 Nov 2008

I saw Chris Sivertson's first film (an adaptation of the Ketchum novel"The Lost") a couple of years ago at the NZ Film Festival and thought it was very good. Gritty with a fantastic central performance and a very David Lynch like use of colour. He did a Q&A afterwards during which he briefly spoke of his excitement about the opportunity he'd been given to direct "the new Lyndsey Lohan thriller".

Unfortunately Chris, you kinda buggered it up. The use of colour is back but adds nothing. There are a lot of stylistic touches but they just seem wanky rather than contributing to the film. The script is exposition-heavy and clunky and the twist can be seen coming a fair distance off. Also the long slow-mo scenes in the stripclub come across as gratuitous and kinda pointless.

I didn't have a problem with Lohan. She's a fine actress and did what she could with the script. I don't think the blame should be put on her. The problem here is a director who has seen this as his big chance to make a mark and so he's thrown every trick he knows into the mix, regardless of whether it actually says anything or moves the plot forward.

It's not the steaming pile of shit that it's been labelled as. It's just not that good. Don't let that put you off seeing Sivetson's directorial debut though. "The Lost" is well worth a watch and I hope he can go back to making films of that calibre instead of desperately trying to impress Hollywood with sillyness like this.