Review of The Stranger (2010) by Paul W — 15 Jul 2010

The Stranger concerns hulking material witness Steve Austin who has not only lost his family and job, but also his memory thanks to a specific tragedy. His psyche thus causes him to take small bits of his life and expand them into entire personalities that have him drifting all about world, or possibly just California.

Anyways, his doctor Erica Cerra is hot on his trail, looking to bring him in and help rehabilitate him, but she's also being accompanied by the entire FBI, some of whom are legit and others who are corrupt and eager to see Austin dead.

Once you get past the kinda dumb opening and low-budget shortcomings (not to mention the direction...more on that in a sec), The Stranger winds up actually being a pretty solid thriller. The story-telling in this is surprisingly inventive and engaging, and so are the majority of this film's actors and actresses.

Once everything builds up and all the pieces come together, they do end it on a note that definitely leaves you craving more, which I hope DOES happen, but I definitely have some suggestions. If in fact they DO make a sequel to the Stranger, please take the necessary actors and the writer (Quinn Scott in his first writing role) of this film and blockade everyone else from coming back, including the director and whomever decided it was a good idea to do such lousy camerawork throughout the film.

It was painfully obvious that director Richard Lieberman had too much pressure on his shoulders because the direction is lousy. This is a little nerve-wrecking considering Lieberman's notable work on hit TV shows and his upcoming film, The Tortured, which I have been DYING to see.

Hopefully he did a better job on that one. Other than that, The Stranger is a surprisingly decent film.