VISITORS (2003)

Directed by Richard Franklin.  Written by Everett De Roche.
Starring Radha Mitchell, Susannah York, Ray Barrett.
2003, 100 minutes, Color, Rated R.

This was Richard Franklin's last movie.  Franklin was an Australian filmmaker whose most famous movie was perhaps PSYCHO II (1982), but he made some great movies before and some good movies after that one.   Perhaps his best achievement was ROAD GAMES (1981) but I also quite enjoy PATRICK (1978). He didn't quite parlay the success of PSYCHO II into a "A"-list Hollywood career, and by the 1990's had returned to making films in Australia.

VISITORS is a psychological tale of a woman trying to sail around the world alone.  She's stuck in a dead calm and may be going bonkers.  I thought this was pretty good--not great, but very decent.  It's hurt a bit by obvious stage work (that is, the boat is obviously on a stage and not on open water) and a poor ending, but overall I found it quite effective.  There are a number of legitimately good jumps.  This feels more like a TV-movie than a theatrical film, but it good for what it is.

It was filmed in Super 35 and the DVD I viewed was full frame, but it looked pretty good zoomed in on my widescreen monitor. It was released theatrically at 2.35:1 and the tighter framing works in enhacing the claustropbic aspects of the setting.