Review of When Strangers Appear (2001) by Sylvester K — 26 Jan 2010

A film like 'When Strangers Appear' serves as a worthy reminder of how difficult a well-constructed screenplay is to write by demonstrating how poorly it can be done! Truly an amateurish effort: a vehicle changes location without a driver, 3 men cannot chase down a 5'4" woman neither in their car nor on foot, enemies routinely appear from nowhere, and the hackneyed King of McGuffins, an unexplained computer disc. How original! These inadequacies disrupt what began as an intriguing mystery/thriller with a wounded drifter appearing at an offroad diner tended by a jaded waitress with a secret of her own. Unfortunately the writer seemed to have concocted his scenes first but then had no idea how to string them together. Josh Lucas and his cronies are fairly pedestrian, the only reason this gets two stars is the typically involving, realistic work from Radha Mitchell who draws us into her plight. And the final pre-credit scene is an ironic chuckler.

But set in Oregon?? Ha ha, I don't think so!