Not Too Long Didn't Read

“Kimi is a 2022 American thriller film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written and produced by David Koepp. The film stars Zoë Kravitz. It was released on HBO Max on February 10, 2022, to generally positive reviews.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimi_(film)

To watch this movie you might need HBO Max. Here is the IMDB link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14128670/

This is a repost of my Reddit reaction just after watching this film. If I reflect and wake up tomorrow feeling differently about it, then I will write more. Not sure why this particular movie even prompted me to write down my thoughts, but there you go.

Mostly criticism, not fan fare.

Low B, almost a C. Good enough to waste 90 minutes if I am just bored, but not if I had enough energy to want something better.

As a low B action flick, it was entertaining enough to watch all the way through, once I got past the poorly written introduction of this character. Selfish and pretty much not someone I would everyone to live near. Usually, the set up is the phase of a movie where we learn something about our protagonist character that makes us empathize with them, so we can root for them later. Not so in this case. Most of the characters in this movie were easily dismissed. Others were undeveloped and I am not sure why they were even in this movie.

Almost did not get through the first few minutes when she was eating on the phone and rudely hanging up on her therapist… Her inconsiderate nature made it even harder to empathize with her as a protagonist rather than see her as an entitled twenty-something. Setting aside generational bias on that one… Her acting was very flat, but the flat affect is still somewhat believable for a traumatized agoraphobic with stunted people skills. I just think that the creative team could have been so much more… as could many other actors.

Her one redeeming factor, the only one aside from the unbelievable thank you to the stalker neighbor near the end, was her determination to report the crimes. But even that became a cheap gimmick ending with the 911 call happening in front of the would be boyfriend for “stoopid” shock value.

Until the end, when she went full on sociopathic killer with a competency for cold blooded murder that was totally unreal. (Realize that the difference between murder and self-defense is not the circumstances, but the motive and the lack of remorse.) This girl was a stone cold killer. A real human would not have been so dispassionate about post mortem head shots to make sure the killers were dead. (That is what *should* happen, and what we all scream at the screen for silly actors to do when they only shoot the bad guy once… but actually doing it requires a coldness that is reserved for professional killers. Is she an assassin now too? I think not, just a badly written and acted character stretched beyond her limits. Responsiblity for breaking the fourth wall so many times goes on the writers, director and Kravitz too. Juvenile writing that could be easily repaired, no emotional commitment by the actress (maybe an amateur?), and a total failure of legitimate creative vision by the director and producer(s). This story premise could be evolved so much better.

The agoraphobia pretty much disappeared after a huge set up. I heard what someone said about a few wiggly camera tricks just as she left her apartment, but then it just was not continued as an issue. Mild tie on when the stalker neighbor said he is confined as well.

Shifting to the positives… I thought her use of automated assistant tech was clever, and yeah, real bad guys might have reacted much much faster to ANYTHING she did, but we can let that go for the fun of it.

Nail gun… Yeah, she pulled an Annie Oakey on that, and wrapped the entire conflict in the last five minutes. I thought that was kind of rushed and implausible. Not sure if the producer ran out of money, or just did not have enough creative ideas about how to end this movie.

I am out of time… just left with a mild feeling of Okay, I watched that. I don’t want that hour of my life back. It is not that bad, but I am left disappointed.