Summary
Grieving truck driver Joe finds himself in a steamy story of spirits.
My Thoughts
Between Worlds is, in some cases, a true showcase of how strange our spotlighted actor Nicolas Cage can be, giving us a manic, dirty and often hilarious performance as lonely truck driver Joe (that's three for three films I've reviewed now that Cage's character has been named Joe, huzzah!) who, in a series of very rushed and very odd events meets Julie (Franka Potente, “The Bourne Identity”), a woman grieving over the condition of her daughter Billie (Penelope Mitchell), who is hospitalized with a coma after a very serious auto accident. Joe, being a nice guy who doesn't care about his stable trucking job decides, without any hesitation, to help Julie and accompany her to the hospital, where she tells Joe that if she goes unconscious she can slip in between the worlds of the living and those of the spirits. So she has Joe strangle her until she passes out in the hospital stairwell; both erotic and clean. Due to some really terrible editing choices, the viewer is unable to make any sense out of what happens, but somehow Billie wakes up, and Joe then decides it's a great idea to help these two ladies out...for three days. And while Billie rests, Joe and Julie have sex… I mean a lot of sex, an unnecessary amount of sex. It's not needed, but it's there; Nic Cage in all his unadulterated, heavy-breathing glory.
On a completely separate note, this film is a perfect example of false advertising, looking at the cover for “Between Worlds”, one would assume that this is going to be a supernatural, fantasy action movie, or some type of thriller. We see Nicolas Cage bloodied, with a stone cold look of vengeance on his face. The title is engulfed in flames, and the 'T' in 'Between' is made to look like an upside cross. So I went into this movie expecting something along the lines of a horror movie (maybe a cheap “Constantine” knock off), not a lazy erotic thriller whose best attempt resembles the likes of 'Ghost' in all the worst ways.
The events of this film transpire so quickly and erratically that the viewer hardly has any time to piece anything of the convoluted plot together. Smaller events are only in the film to move the narrative forward; it doesn’t matter if it makes little sense. Such as the scene where Joe is so seemingly upset when he loses his job after ditching his responsibilities for three straight days, and claims it was for a good cause! After that he just goes right back to Julie and Billie's house, without any hesitation from Julie, like money or how long he stays, or who the hell he actually is. There's no real flow to the events that brings the story together. Joe reveals in the beginning that he lost his family in a fire, and is still grieving, but has no problem sleeping with this woman he just met, let alone moving in with her after a few days.
The quasi supernatural element comes in when Billie reveals that she's actually Joe's wife whose spirit manifested itself into Billie's body while she was in a coma.
What?
Yeah, there was maybe a brief line to prelude this, but there was nothing that could make this twist seem legitimate. Right after she tells Joe this, they start sleeping together. Then Julie finds out that Joe is sleeping with Billie, but Joe explains the situation, and Julie knows everything about the spirits changing, and is totally on board to help Joe figure this all out (thanks to her all-knowing witchy coworker in a terrible scene of exposition). It's so ineptly written and there’s so little care for the craft of filmmaking that this whole thing just comes off like a joke. Fellow True Mythian Seth and I were constantly looking to each other for some explanation but the only thing we could find was laughter, constantly making jokes about the stupidity of the situation. Such as the moment towards the end when Julie goes back finally to the spirit realm between worlds to save Billie, and everything just works out. There's no real climax, stuff just kind of happens and the director thinks no one will notice how haphazardly this finale was put together; amateur move. Now unlike 'Bangkok Dangerous', Nicolas Cage does give us a pretty solid performance, there's some classic freak outs and one-liners that hardcore Cage fans will be eager to chew on, and the last 10 minutes he gives us one of the most hilarious and maniacally bizarre performance since 'The Wicker Man'. For that reason alone I would recommend this movie. If it weren't for Cage this movie would have no reason to exist in the universe.
Overall, “Between Worlds” is not a worthy watch on an entertainment level. It's pure trash, and it feels like an embarrassing High School film that the teacher forces the class to watch just as an example of how not to make a film, or write one. It's filled with too many plot holes, too much irregular pacing, uninspired cinematography, and a story that feels like they started principal photography with a half finished first draft. It doesn't keep the viewer interested with it's nonsensical plot threads, and the twist is beyond silly. There's so much sex that it's borderline offensive at parts, like when Billie hides and watches her mother and a strange greasy man bang themselves into sexual satisfaction. The set ups are poorly paid off (if they paid at all), such as the scene where Joe and Billie go to rob two guys who were part of Billie's accident in the beginning (both of whom were not bad guys at all). It all feels rushed and bogged down with too many inconsistencies. The only saving grace is Nicolas Cage does not phone in his performance here, he makes the seemingly eternal 90 minute runtime tolerable, and will provide many laughs along the way, not because that's how it was written, but because Cage usually always brings over the top zaney life to an otherwise mundane story, and for that we thank you Nicolas Cage.
I give Between Worlds 2 stars out of 5.
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