AFI Fest Report: Danika Review

Danika (Marisa Tomei) begins experiencing daytime nightmares that upset her husband (Craig Bierko) and three children. All of them relate in some way to children -- her own or others -- and the nasty results that come from their not being properly protected by their parents.

As she loses touch with reality, Danika begins seeing a young psychiatrist (Regina Hall), but the counsel she offers is all pat, straight from the textbook platitudes, and does nothing to bolster Danika's tenuous grip on life. Her children appear to turn against her, and her delusions finally come to the attention of the authorities.

Danika sounds and feels as though it should be a thriller, and in some ways director Vromen treats it as one, with several "jump" shots, jarring musical cues, and a fair amount of blood. But the film is paced as a deliberately-moving drama, and because the first indication that Danika is losing her mind comes very early, the slack pace mitigates the tension. Genre viewers may become impatient, wishing that the story raced rather than dawdled. And the resolution, while sympathetic to the characters, tends to nullify much of what has come before.

On the plus side, it's encouraging to see Vromen's ambition in taking on a radically-different set of characters than Rx. He and cinematographer Darko Suvak achieve a very attractive, pristine suburban look, with full-bodied -- but not overblown -- colors. Watching it on a big screen, it was hard to believe it was shot and projected on video.

Marisa Tomei gives a fully fleshed-out performance, and I have no doubt that parents will react differently to her character than this non-parent did (words like suffocating and irritating kept coming to mind).

Your parental tolerance mileage may vary.

The film is scheduled to be released on DVD in Region 1 by First Look Entertainment on December 26, 2006.