Intriguing for most of its journey, REGRESSION challenges the balance between our memories, our desires and the way our minds can both leap to conclusions while burying facts at the same time.
Ethan Hawke (very good here again, bringing surprising weight to a role just as he did in "Sinister") plays detective Bruce Kenner, drawn into a very dark child sexual abuse case, determined to bring those responsible to justice.
As Kenner digs deeper, the case seems to unveil a much larger issue, including satanic worship and sacrifice and a town wide web of suspects involved in the cult.
David Thewlis (the Harry Potter series, The Theory of Everything) stars as a psychology professor brought in by the police to interview the victim, Angela Gray, played by Emma Watson, moving on to a more adult role from her Hermione legacy in the Potter series.
As Professor Raines uses Regression Hypnosis to take Angela and some of the suspects back in time to the actual events, horrible details emerge and many people are implicated.
As the ripples of the accusation increase across the town, Kenner finds himself losing his grip on the balance between justice and revenge.
The lines between reality and memory find themselves questioned, with plenty of suspense and some solid scares along the way.
For a fairly low budget film, it's well shot, well scored and directed with style by its writer Alejandro Amenabar (The Others, Open Your Eyes).
Hawke is very good and Watson is okay, somewhat restricted by who her character is in the film. I kept thinking what someone like Jennifer Lawrence would have done with this role and cant help but feel like Watson is a bit flat.
If the final act held up as well as the journey getting there, this would be a terrific film, but as it sits, its a clever and well acted film that poses some interesting questions about the validity of regression, calling back to its time in the early 90's when many cases like this grabbed the headlines.
Regression weaves its way to a B.
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