Girl in Woods is a very conflicting film. The writing and direction were wonderful, as well as the setting: I have previously written about my fondness of independent horror films set in the woods (see my review of The Interior). However, the film’s post-production and the acting were not up to par with the maturity set forth by the intricate story and overall tone of the film. The film succeeds in establishing an atmosphere of fear and mania through cleverly fragmenting the narrative through cryptic flashbacks, but it fails to impress with visuals, simply because of poor quality.

Grace and her boyfriend, Jim, enjoy a weekend alone in the woods, wherein Jim proposes to his loving partner. After a few scenes of flirtatious banter from the couple, a terrible accident leaves Grace stranded in the woods alone. The “terrible accident” in question is coincidently linked to a traumatic event from Grace’s past, one that she never entirely recovered from. As the “indoors-y” woman navigates the vast woods by herself, she must overcome both memory and temptation as she tries to survive the wilderness and her own mind.

"Lets go find you a fish."

I've been told enough times that it is often not a good idea to meet your heroes. It's too often impossible for anyone to live up to expectations, particularly when they are already up on a pedestal in our minds. All humans have their flaws, and Ernest Hemingway was no exception. I never met him. He killed himself around the time I was busy being born. I often joked to my writing professors that he feared my arrival. The truth is that he had so many demons. It isn't a secret today, and it wasn't then, at least not for anyone familiar with his work. But Denne Bart Petitclerc did meet Hemingway after writing him a bit of a fan letter in 1957. The result was that Petitclerc was invited into Hemingway's inner circle at a time in Hemingway's life where his demons were beginning to catch up with him. Place that encounter in the larger environment of Castro's rebel uprising in Cuba at the time, and you might have an interesting story. Petitclerc certainly thought that he did. He wrote a screenplay and shopped it around for decades even up to his own death in 2006. Unlike the many fish on Hemingway's line and tackle, no one bit. It's possible that Papa Hemingway In Cuba is the reason.

First Impressions: a poor man’s Marley and Me. Final Impressions: a poor man’s Marley and Me. So from beginning to end my impression of the film did not change, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. In fact, that is exactly the case for Who Gets the Dog, a heartwarming tale about a poor dog caught in the middle of a divorce of a couple that see him as their child rather than property. Ryan Kwanten and Alicia Silverstone headline the cast of this story but without question the real star is Wesley, our beloved pooch. A wholesome experience can serve as a date movie or film for the whole clan.

Olive Greene and Clay Lonnergan are polar opposites; she is neat, organized with an established career while Clay is spontaneous, fun loving, and waiting for the opportunity to be called up from his minor league hockey team to the majors. Their marriage was an unlikely one to start with and takes no one by surprise when they decide split. For the most part, they handled everything amicably, dividing their shared property fairly and to both their satisfaction. That is until they realize that they both want custody of Wesley, their beloved Labrador; that’s when the gloves come off.