Hope Lost

source: Hope Lost

It's got some pretty good actors but.... .... Pacing, man, pacing!!!!!! It could be a dark movie, it could be torture *, and it was well acted, but it is so freaking slow that by the time anything actually happens, by the time the story gets moving, you already don't care. What they needed was to actually have an event somewhere in the first 10 pages of script to hook the audience, and, preferably, one that has something to do with the plot.

Sophia (Francesca Agostini) hoping to be a film star travels to Rome where she is forced to work for Manol (Michael Madsen) a pimp. She becomes one of Rome's Campfire Girls. The story then turns weird at the end. This is one of the worst films I have seen with Madsen and Trejo. The plot went nowhere. The film is mostly shot at night with Sophia being tested and confronting a number of fetishes. The dialogue wasn't great . Guide: F-bomb, sex, rape, minimum nudity, mostly from the back although I understand there may be versions with more nudity.

The movie overall was interesting enough to watch the entire time. The acting was superb, but the storyline is depressing. This review contains **spoilers. This movie is about sex trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women which is a serious issue that should be addressed in cinematic media. The title captures the essence of the despicable and deplorable outcome of sexual exploitation. The movie provided with a few moments of hope in which the main character seemed to have found someone who was willing to rescue her, but those were just twists in the movie to keep you clinging onto hope. As the movie comes to an end, you may likely become upset, disappointed, or depressed with the climatic ending. I give the movie a 5 because it was entertaining, but left you thinking that the movie was just flat out horrible due to the storyline, but not the acting.

If she answers I hope she does so in her regular voice. Her Romanian accent thing is not really working. Thankfully she is not the main star of this movie, though she might feel different about that. And only adds to the downfall she has taken. We are used to Danny Trejo playing in anything (and I'm not blaming him), even Michael Madsen, though he is a special case and only seems to "work" under Tarantino (no pun intended of course). The theme the movie has is a real problem, but the way it gets handled is poor to say the least. There are worse movies out there of course and there is a couple of neat moments this has, even though we never actually get into the head of the characters

This was almost a really good movie, and then I'm not sure what happened. I wish they had just kept it a trafficking movie instead of trying to make it about snuff films out of nowhere. Mischa Barton could have been such a strong character, but it's like they didn't let her. The story began to feel false after the abortion foolery scene, and went downhill thereafter... still kinda liked it, but that's probably because I had such low expectations, I saw it's rating beforehand, and also I liked the very end.

Review: I thought I would give this movie a chance, because I haven't seen a film with Michael Madsen for ages, and I can totally understand why! I won't blame him for this badly written "straight to DVD" movie, because his weird but wonderful acting skills were OK but it really seemed like everyone wasn't fully committed to the project. Its basically about a woman who goes away with a popular director, leaving her kid behind, to translate for him but the director ends up taking her to a prostitutes den, so she can work for a brutal pimp, played by Michael Madsen. As the director owes Madsen money, she has to work the debt off, against her own will, and she tries to escape but Madsen's henchmen always stop her in her tracks. They then try to use her in a snuff movie but she takes matters into her own hands and tries to escape from the disturbed weirdos. The acting is quite poor from the whole cast and the ending just didn't make any sense, whatsoever. Not that I was bothered! Madsen has really hit rock bottom and I doubt that a good Taratino movie will bring him out of this slump. Disappointing! Round-Up: This movie was directed by David Patricia, 37, whose previous movies, have all been for an Italian audience. I don't really know what the moral of this storyline was, or what point he was trying to get across, so it just seemed like a waste of time, in my opinion. The lady who ended up in those terrible circumstances, just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and the graphic scenes just showed how sick and perverted those individuals were. Anyway, I think you can tell that I didn't really warm to this movie, so it has to get the thumbs down from me. I recommend this movie to people who are into their drama/thrillers starring Danny Trejo, Michael Madsen, Daniel Baldwin and Mischa Barton. 1/10

I realize that people still think film is primarily for entertainment, when rather much of the "fiction" is art depicting life directly from the conscience of those creating the film. So if the goal is to walk away from the film satisfied that you will be thoroughly entertained, you will indeed be disappointed. Some of the reviews stated there were "violent scenes for no reason." The suffering instituted by human trafficking was depicted in all it's horrific and pointless tragedy. Snuff films are not urban myths. The average human psyche cannot conceive of the evils done in the dark. The film, whether glorifying it for those initiated in the knowledge, or raising awareness of how women, men, and children are brutally lured, kidnapped, and enslaved probably does both. That's the dialect here. I'm still about the execution of well-developed screenplays and fluid storylines, so 6 stars was a fair assessment. The actors portray their roles as they are understood to operate in the trafficking system as of 2015. Check. Snuff films, still found on the dark web. Check. Acting was sufficient to help the audience open or keep their eyes wide shut to the darkness of the world. Given this was released again for 2020, I suspect it is about raising awareness to what I hope is an end to this Satanic system of torture and enslavement of humanity.

The opening song is Son of Man by About Wayne. I have not heard a great tune like this since early Tool on N.I.N. I was immediately engaged by the young Sofia (Francesca Agostini) listening to great music while working in a nasty factory. The Best Line in the movie was from her adorable brother, "How could I live without you?" but it sounds better in his language with the accent. The beginning of this movie was great. I was on the fence when Michael Madsen's character started speaking but the movie continued to come back around and I was pleasantly surprised by the overall story. Mischa, Mischa, Mischa.... *sigh* I have always like Barton's acting skills. Barton was better than average in this movie but she needed some work on her accent. I'm still a fan. I think they were playing Mozart at the end and it was simultaneously inappropriate and perfect. I will always love this film for introducing me to the Music Artist About Wayne.