Chaos (1999)

The longer this film from the director of Ringu goes on and the more we learn about the story, the less interesting it becomes. All the tricky chronology in the world can't hide that, ultimately, this film is a riff on a very famous thriller which I will not mention except to say that I'll bet you've seen it at least once. Now, the plot of this acknowledged and oft-referenced classic doesn't really hold up to close scrutiny, when you get right down to it -- it's valuable not as textbook plotting but as a ruthlessly disturbing study of deviant psychology that only gets better and more disturbing upon repeat viewings when you know the nature of the game. Hideo Nakata's version, however, apparently feels that the plot's the thing. Which is a mistake. An even bigger mistake was monkeying with said psychology so that the ending has to be changed ever so subtly, so that now what was a sad, cathartic accident in the original now becomes willful and thus extremely stupid. It holds the interest for a while and impeccably made, but it's such hack work, really.

Grade: C+