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In a Dark Place
DVD Movie Review
by Tricia Urlaub
Anna Veigh (Leelee Sobieski) is a woman scarred by abuse. A victim both as a child and adult, Anna finds herself "lucky" enough to land a nanny job at Bly house. Her charges are two children, Miles (Christian Olson) and Flora (Gabrielle Adam). These children seem, at first, charming albeit somewhat reserved, but who can blame them, everyone around them keeps dying. Their parents were killed in a plane crash, and Anna Veigh's predecessor, Miss Jessel, drowned in the pond.
Ms. Grose (Tara Fitzgerald) manages Bly House and during this time is the only other adult on the property. However, Anna insists she is seeing another man and woman - as it turns out, Miss Jessel and her (now dead) lover. Anna is certain these folks had, while alive, abused the children. The signs are all there, she proclaims, Miles' discharge (3x) from private schools, (due to unspeakable acts), Flora's delicate, reserved nature. Anna becomes convinced that these ghosts are after the children. She sees them everywhere, though nobody else does.
Eventually, Anna's abberant behavior towards the children forces them into either the hospital (as in Flora's case due to an asthma attack) or into hiding (as in Miles' case). Anna can't, for the life of her, understand why the children, whom she'd do anything for, are so afraid of her. The audience is given hints towards Anna's spiraling decline into madness, and at the very end it is clear, she alone is the source of malevolence toward the children. She was so caught up in saving the children's souls, she neglected their flesh and blood.
Leelee Sobieski is particularly haunting and beautiful, keenly convincing as a disturbed yet good-intentioned young woman.
With superior being a bright full moon, this movie rates:
© Urlaub, 2007
