Search - Wicker Park on DVD

Sharon F. (Shar) from AVON PARK, FL
Reviewed on 2/1/2019...

Good mystery movie.

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Jerry S. from OCEANSIDE, CA
Reviewed on 7/11/2016...

Loved It! ❤️

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Anthia R. (hepburn05) from CANBY, CA
Reviewed on 2/10/2010...

What a great mystery. The plot thickens throughout the show until you're not sure what is really happening until the end.

1 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.

Heather F. (8izenuff) from PHOENIX, AZ
Reviewed on 1/19/2009...

This is not a scary "thriller" as say Single white female. It can be confusing at times, becase it flashed back a few times. But overall it was good, no one gets stabbed, or bleeds anywhere. Sorry but the ending scene was just sappy. So the case lists it as a dangerous sexy thriller but it is a little too chick flick for most mens taste. So yes Romantic Drama. Sorry guys the cover makes it look like it is full of steamy sex scenes, NOPE! I wont be having nightmares from this either. Some of that scary stuff can make it hard to sleep. Over all a very mild movie.

3 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.

JOSH HARTNETT AT HIS BEST

Y. ji | los angeles, california | 01/04/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"WARNING: SPOILERS TOWARDS THE END...I went into this movie thinking that it would be an entirely different thing, more fatal attraction than what it actually was. However, seeing the movie, I can understand how some people might feel as if they were jipped because the actual movie is different than what the previews make it out to be, but the truth of it is, this movie tells about the consequences of how one person can affect all those around them. In this way, I believe that its more real life than hollywood. Although I admit, the movie can be slow in the middle, especially when the viewer figures out whats happening and whats going to happen faster than the movie moves, it is towards the end where the plot really starts to pick up and I guarantee you, at the very end when Josh Hartnett and Diane Kruger are just about to find each other, but yet keep on missing each other by fate, you literally want to scream and throw something because you want it as much as they do. Its a great movie, but only for those that can appreciate it for what it is, a story about unbreakable love between two people struggling to get through all odds and accept it for what its not, a high-paced thriller."

O Lisa! Lisa! Wherefore Art Thou Lisa?

Tucker Andersen | Wall Street | 09/05/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This film vacillates between romance, mystery and occasional flashes of humor, and the story is accompanied by a varied and sometimes overly loud sountrack. It is simultaneously a story of lost opportunities, the search for closure, and the pursuit of a dream (or is it a romantic obsession?) sequenced in an interesting and clever manner by Director Paul McGuigan. It is almost two hours in length and the storyline takes shape slowly at the beginning, so a theatergoer should be prepared for it to take a while to become involved with the characters and for the pace to accelerate.



The movie opens with Matt (Josh Hartnett) rushing to a Chicago restaurant to meet his girlfriend and her family before he is scheduled to leave for Shanghai on a business trip. (He is employed by his girlfriend's brother.) Luke (Matthew Lillard), an old friend who does not know that Matt has returned to Chicago from living in NYC, spots him on the street as he is about to enter the restaurant and Matt promises that they will get together when he returns from China. While making a visit to the restroom after using the pretext of the need to make a phone call (apparently he doesn't own a cell phone) when the discussion of marriage was brought up, Matt accidentally overhears a phone conversation involving a woman who apparently fears for her safety. Once he concentrates upon the call, he is convinced it is the voice of his former girlfriend Lisa, who mysteriously disappeared overnight two years ago. Her unexplained absence after failing to meet her for a planned rendezvous in WICKER PARK caused the heartbreak which resulted in his decision to move to NYC. The woman rushes from the restaurant before he can confront her, but he finds a hotel key left folded in a newspaper in the phone booth. One of the few predictable moments in the movie occurs when Matt decides he has to attempt to locate the woman and determine if it is indeed Lisa, with whom he is still obsessed.



So, Matt's odyssey begins. He enlists Luke's help, who is of course stunned that Matt would postpone his business trip and take the chance of completely ruining his current relationship. However, in a flashback we soon discover that Luke played a significant role in Matt's initial meeting with Lisa (Diane Kruger). Furthermore, the state of Luke's relationship with his girlfriend and budding actress Alex (Rose Byrne) leaves a lot to be desired. The complexity of the interrelationships betwen the characters is gradually revealed, and while the surprise at the center of the story is not as great as that in the SIXTH SENSE, many of the same cinematic techniques of time shifting, misdirection, and well disguised clues are employed. Since I do not want to include any spoilers, I will simply summarize the story by saying that the tension builds gradually as the degree of the manipulation resulting from the romantic obsession of one of the characters is gradually revealed.



This is not a film for moviegoers who like linear plot expositions and easily categorizable stories. The element which causes it to rise above the usual mundane two or three star film about a manipulative psycho acting out a romantic fantasy is the structure of the film. The story is told in very nonlinear fashion, with cuts to flashbacks of events two years ago becoming more frequent as the film proceeds. Flashbacks to events that have just transpired are also interspersed, but these are experienced from the point of view of other than the primary narrator Matt. On occasion the technique was disorienting until I became accustomed to it, because the viewer has to figure out when the action is occuring. But if you stay alert, it was a very efective way of illuminating the events involved and adding contex through the rapidly changing perspectives. I definitely would have to watch the film again in order to see how often such juxtapositions could actually be recognized by an alert moviegoer and how many were totally a function of utilizing closeups which obscured the totality of the action. In summary, this is a technically interesting and well acted film telling a moderately interesting. The tension is palpable, because the viewer is never sure until the end whether it is primarily a romance or a psyhological thriller. (I certainly won't tell!) In conclusion, this is a story of both shattered lives and restored dreams.



Tucker Andersen"

ONLY FOR WHEN YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO...

Lawyeraau | Balmoral Castle | 07/06/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This film, which sort of promised another "Single White Female" or "Fatal Attraction" in the trailers, delivers something else altogether. Matthew (Josh Hartnett), a young, handsome, Chicago businessman is scheduled to leave for China on a business trip. While on a business lunch, shortly before his departure, he suddenly hears a voice that brings back memories. He catches a glimpse of the woman speaking and believes her to be Lisa (Diane Kruger), the woman whom he passionately loved two years before but who had totally and mysteriously disappeared from his life, seemingly without a trace. As she rushes out of the restaurant, Matthew is unable to catch up with her, as his current girl friend is with him.



Still, he is so taken with what he thinks that he has heard and seen that he decides to chuck his trip to China and, instead, search for his heart's desire. His best friend, Luke (Matthew Lillard), helps him, after Matthew lays it out for him. Meanwhile, Luke is having his own troubles with Alex (Rose Byrne), his current main squeeze. Matthew's investigative efforts eventually lead him to an apartment that he believes to be Lisa's, only to find another woman there who calls herself Lisa but who is not the Lisa that he is looking for. To his surprise, this Lisa seems to have the hots for him, and he initially responds accordingly.



Nonethelees, he continues the search for his Lisa, and the viewer eventually sees them pass each other, as two ships in the night, so close, yet so far, seemingly kept apart by fate. Will they ever connect, and why have they not managed to find each other before this? These are the questions that the viewer begins to ask, and it is this that is at the crux of the film. There is more than fate at work here. There is an obstacle to their reunion, and what that obstacle is and why will soon become apparent to the viewer.



The first half of the movie is told with numerous flashbacks, as the director weaves in what happened two years before with the current state of affairs (pun intended). Unfortunately, it is done in such a clumsy way as to leave the viewer somewhat confused. The second half of the film is much better, as the flashbacks appear to make more sense and the veil begins to be lifted. The film actually starts to achieve some semblance of coherence and clarity. The eventual interconnection between the characters is interesting, but what the film delivers to the viewer is a far cry from what was promised by the film's trailers.



Rose Byrne gives an excellent performance in a role that demands much from her. Matthew Lillard is fun to watch, as always. Josh Hartnett, to my surprise, as I am a fan of his, gives a performance that is almost laughable. I was actually embarrassed for him. Diane Kruger does a credible job with her role. Still, given the direction of the film, it is easy to see why this film bombed at the box office.

"