Movie Review: The Host

The Host (UK Rating: 15)

At its core, The Host has all the makings of a cult classic. It's a bold film, and though it's hardly anything approaching original (it would be generous to call it mildly derivative), it's clearly someone's vision come to fruition. It's like a bad relationship though, in that when it's good, it's a great film. However, you never know what kind of mood it will be in soon, and that instability makes it a rocky experience overall.

The film opens with Robert, a banker working in London who seems to have some financial woes. These lead him down the path of owing the wrong people money, and having to do some bad people some equally bad favours. It's not remarkably original, but it's competently written and paced, so it's at least moderately entertaining.

However, not long into the film, the gears change.  What started off as a fairly formulaic crime drama turns into something much darker. Unfortunately, this turn works both in the films favour and to its detriment. It does a good job establishing the film as unpredictable, but that also gives off the impression the move can't make up its mind.

In fact, the best way to describe The Host's pacing is scattershot. It definitely feels like three movies were jammed together, and every one of them was just a decent forgery of a better film before it. Couple this with absolutely no character development, and an ending that feels remarkably inconsequential, and The Host is a messy film throughout. Not bad per se, just messy.

5/10

Average

​The Host works enough to be recommended, but not enough to be outright praised. Is it a blatant rip-off? In some ways, yes. How much you will enjoy it comes down to whether you believe the old adage that every story has been told. All the stories here have been told, and far better in most cases - but that shouldn't detract from your ability to at least find something resembling entertainment within its 102 minutes of runtime.