The Intended Movie Review 2002

Period melodrama set in steamy 1920s Indochina. Ambitious young surveyor (Feild) heads upriver with his older fiancee (McTeer) in hopes of starting a new life at a colonial trading post. Of course, all is not right when they arrive. They find the post run by scary militant widow Fricker, surrounded by a freakshow of family and hangers-on. Her son, a disgustingly oily slacker (Maudsley), is angry when mommy decides to pass control over to a nephew instead of him and starts scheming. While Maudsley's unhinged nanny (Dukakis) creepily fawns over him, he casts a greedy eye towards McTeer. Wonderfully twisted over-the-top horror show reminds at times of Old Dark House thrillers of the '30s, minus the knowing, tongue-in-cheek humor. Takes itself way too seriously, but it's good fun for fans of unintentional camp.

Distribution

New Video Group, 902 Broadway, 9th Fl., New York, NY 10010, Phone: (212)206-8600, Toll-free: 800-314-8822, Fax: (212)206-9001, Email: customersupport@newvideo.com, URL: http://www.newvideo.com

Available on DVD
Running time 110 minutes.
Originally from British, Danish.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Family Drama, Period Piece: 1920s, Asia, Jungle Stories, Widows & Widowers, Otherwise Engaged, Monster Moms, Aunts & Uncles, Nieces & Nephews, Cousins

Screenplay

Kristian Levring

Cast

Janet McTeer, J.J. Feild, Olympia Dukakis, Brenda Fricker, Tony Maudsley, David Bradley, Philip Jackson, Robert Pugh

Cinematography

Jens Schlosser

Director

Kristian Levring

Music

Matthew Herbert

Other

Stuart Wilson, Nicholas Wayman-Harris, Andrew McClelland, Lars Nielsen

Producer

Patricia Kruijer, Malene Blenkov, Parallax Independent, Produktionsselskrabet, IFC Films