2017 Films: #28 Never Here

An OnDemand viewing on November 4th in Chicago, IL. After looking through iTunes, Netflix and finally OnDemand, this is the title my wife and I decided upon. It's a psychological thriller starring Mireille Enos (which is why we went with it) is Miranda Fall a conceptual artist (I had to look it up) that photographs strangers without their knowing. and turns the final product into an exhibit. The film opens up with her latest exhibit, a found cell found that she harvested the information from rather than return it, much to the chagrin of the owner, who expresses his dislike towards the exhibit and threatens to sue.

Later than evening  Miranda is with her art dealer and sometimes lover (it's ok because it's just sex, he's married and emotionally devoted to his terminally ill wife, what a guy!) Paul, Sam Shepard in his last role. After coitus, Paul witnesses a assault on a woman from the window but pulls the old "I don't want to get involved" card. Miranda, not wanting to hear that, decides that she will act as the witness. It's practically the same thing right?

Anyway the cop who questions her turns out to be an old boyfriend. It doesn't take long for Miranda and Detective Williams (Vincent Piazza) to fire up the old flame cliche. From there, weird sh*t starts to happen. Her exhibit gets vandalized, her dog acts really strange and things start moving around in her apartment. It also happens that the man who confessed to the assault didn't actually commit the crime and the perpetrator is still floating around. Miranda starts following a guy who is supposed to be her next exhibit but suddenly feels that he may be the culprit. Anyway, Miranda starts to lose her grip on reality and slips into madness.

There's a few things to like about this slow burning thriller. Enos does a fine job as Miranda. Camille Thoman wrote and directed the film and it kind of falls short at the end. I personally enjoy thrillers where the main character loses it but we do not really get a payoff. Or there was a payoff and it went over my head. Despite a 110 minute run time, the film feels incomplete but got an 82% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Solid acting, nice use of lighting but to me, it comes up short and ran a little long.