I’ve never re-posted any of my old stuff, but I have been spending a lot of time in the past lately and I wanted to watch something modern and GOOD so I gave this another look. I wasn’t going to re-post but then I thought that, back when I first published this, I only had a few Good and Experimental Readers that stopped by, so I thought I would put this back out here – to re-spread the word about this fantastic movie, in case you missed it the first time. For those of you who have been around since The Beginning, you might notice I changed this from a four to a five because, if for nothing else that it’s just that good, I just re-watched this and I totally loved it again. The Good and Trusting Reader should give this a chance. Make sure you read this though, because this isn’t the normal fare I put out here.
AMBER LAKE (2011) FIVE TOP HATS
It’s always a thrill to come across some movie that you have no idea what it’s about and no expectations and it turns out to be really good. This movie looks really good, the acting is superb, the story is inventive and creative (which is so very rare these days) and told in awesome three-very-different-perspective flashback sequences to a very effectively subdued character actor Timothy V Murphy, as the local cop. This isn’t an action movie in any way, this is moody, a little tense and “character driven” that was very entertaining in a quality way. I saw this available for rental a few months ago and kept putting it off, because the trailer doesn’t do this justice – I wish I hadn’t and I would totally watch this again. All of the cast did a really good job in this – bravo to them. I also thought it was super creative the way they did the three different scenes with the truck.
Three attractive actresses play three characters named Amber: three sisters (from three different mothers) who don’t know that each other exists that receive a hand written letter from their absentee father. One, Amber Allen (Natalie Smyka) is a joyful pixie who isn’t afraid to get in her skivvies and jump in the lake (also named Amber) with strange boys. Another, Amber Hannold (Mekenna Melvin) is a suicidal, upset reclusive type and the last, Amber Thomas (Polly Cole) is a depressed yet successful author. The father of the three is a brilliant psychiatrist who wants to get the three together and help them get their lives together since he hasn’t been involved with them in their entire existence. They all have some sort of mental problems and he stages an intervention – calling out their personality disorders like an incredible dickhead, upsetting them enough to all storm out in a rage. As that scene closes and the next opens up, the father is dead in the lake.
What follows is an interview with each of the Ambers by the cop I mentioned earlier, and each retrospective of what happened after the intervention is very different – and very cool, both from the way each Amber acted as well as the way the other two sisters recall each other’s behaviors. They also have different recollections of who it was that actually engaged the father after the incident(s) at the beach, and each have different takes on how the father reacted based on their personalities – like I said – really good stuff. I wont give away the ending – but this is as satisfying an ending as I have seen in quite a while.
I really liked Amber Lake.
This sounds really great! I’ve never heard of it so I’m super happy you re-posted about it! 🙂
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Perfect! My work here is done! (For real, this movie is excellent!) Give it a chance – I would LOVE to get your thoughts on it!
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It’s not available via Netflix yet (date unknown for release) so I’ll see if I can hunt it down! 🙂
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Good luck!!
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Color me intrigued. I’ll try to check this one out
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You should definitely include this in your quest – this is really good – more people need to hear the word about this
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Thank you for the very kind words on a film that was a labor of love from the entire cast & crew.
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Wow Chris!! Thank you thank you for visiting this place!! You guys made a VERY GOOD movie and I can’t wait for what you have for us next. I posted this once, last year and re-posted again here to spread the word – more people need to see this. That last shot of Murphy is CLASSIC! Thanks again!
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Now available on Hulu!!!! http://www.hulu.com/amber-lake
Thanks for the love!!!
Chris
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Great news, Chris! And – yes – always love to Amber Lake – I plug it all the time. I think the most responses I get are to the tune of: “I can’t find it on NetFlix”. I get a lot of hits on these two Amber Lake pages so hopefully the word is getting around. Can’t wait for your next production!
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Finally Amber Lake is on Netflix!!! Streaming only but it is there. I also owe you that picture…
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Amber_Lake/70224571?locale=en-US
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GREAT news, Chris!! I’ll try and spread the word!!
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Hmm. You do like this one, don’t you. Think I’ve seen you mention it before. Does sound like an interesting story.
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It’s very good – surprisingly good to a guy like me…
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