Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

This 2006 movie, a re-make of a 1973 British film, starts off with a California Highway Police motorcycle officer seeing a doll fly out of a heavily-packed station wagon.  He picks up the doll and pulls the car over, finding a woman driving and a little girl in the back seat.  The girl is complaining that she is bored and, when the officer gives her back her doll, she flings it from the car again.  He walks the ten or fifteen feet to retrieve the doll but, when he turns to walk back to the car, he sees a large truck plow into the back of the car.  The car immediately catches fire and, when the officer tries to save the people inside, the car explodes and everyone in the car is apparently killed.

The next event in the movie is the same officer receiving a hand written letter from his former fiancé, saying she is in dire need of his help because her daughter is missing.  It says she lives in a commune on a small island in Puget Sound, with no telephone service on the island.  He takes some time off to pursue the matter.  However, getting to the island turns out to be no piece of cake because of the reclusive nature of the people on the island and their instructions to local boat and sea-plane operators to not bring visitors to the island without prior permission.  He manages to find a way anyway.

What he finds on the island reminded me of something out of a Thomas Tryon book like Harvest Home or something written by Charles de Lint.  At first, there seems to be only women on the island but then he sees that there are men, although they seem to be treated as menial laborers or some lower cast of people.  He encounters significant resistance and blind alleys in his attempts to find information on the missing girl.  Did she ever exist?  Is she dead?  Is she being held captive?  His former fiancé seems to want to help him but also seems to be afraid to do so.  Or, is she misleading him?  Who is the father of the missing child?  Why are there so many bees on the island?  By the way, the protagonist is highly allergic to bee stings.  What do the people on the island have to do with Salem, Massachusetts?

The musical score is subtle and not memorable, but it does the job of enhancing the mood of the scenes and the overall film.  The setting is bucolic and beautiful.  There are no special effects to speak of.  Costuming is definitely a factor, though.  The people of the commune dress is whites and grays, in clothes that look they come from earlier times in history.  This adds to their strangeness, as they look benign and ordinary, but there is a growing suspense throughout the tale regarding the fate of the missing girl and, later, of the police officer.

The quality of the movie really rests on the acting.  The protagonist, Edward Malus, is portrayed by Nicholas Cage.  Mr. Cage is not my favorite actor, as I see him as not great at showing a range of emotion.  However, he does this role justice.  Kate Beahan portrays his former fiancée, who presents as conflicted and torn between concern for her missing daughter and loyalty to the commune.  Ellen Burstyn is an unflappable and soft-spoken force to be reckoned with.

One flaw is in a scene near the end.  The commune members don costumes for a festival, and those costumes come off as overdone and not very professional in make.  A sinister scene is thus rendered less impactful.  Another flaw of the movie is that it is slow and too quiet at times.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older