Such as the rotweiller that protects Nigel, very much like the demonic dogs who protected Damian in the classic "Omen." And a grisly murder, featuring a young woman crucified with two rowing oars crossed. There were some really nice touches, and a couple tributes paid to other classic films about evil. Eddie Redmayne as Alex was no less compelling. And the character of Nigel, as portrayed by Tom Sturridge, was evil and menacing, and his pale, haunted look made for perfect casting. The story becomes more bizarre, and more fascinating as it goes forward, and a couple plot twists really blew me away. But those moments are few and far between, as the film refuses to be predictable, or normal in any way. A couple scenes made the movie look like it might turn into another average murder mystery thriller. Mainly the ones that focused on Toni Collette's character, as a criminal psychologist. There were of course, a few scenes that were not quite as effective. The cinematography is beautiful, and the scenes with Nigel and Alex are mesmerizing. However i can see this one developing a cult following among fans of strange and sinister films. Surprisingly because, although "Like Minds" is a fine, and very special movie, it is doubtful that it will have a commercial success in the states, as it is just too dark, murky and off-beat for most mainstream movie-goers. Surprisingly Miramax has purchased the rights to this film. This drives Alex crazy, however Nigel manages to insinuate himself into Alex's life, and the relationship that develops between these two guys is one of the strangest ones i have seen portrayed in cinema. He is into taxidermy, and spends most of his time gutting and stuffing animal carcasses in his room. He also has an obsession with dead things. Nigel is quiet, cold, and has a preoccupation with history and pure blood lineage. 17 year-old Alex discovers that a new guy has been placed in his dorm room at the private school which he attends. And 'weird' is a good thing, in a time when seemingly everything has been done, and it is so hard to achieve originality. What i saw was perhaps the most precisely weird film I have ever watched. I got this DVD without knowing a thing about it, other than the fact that the cover art looked interesting, and it was an Australian production. This is a fine art film, graced by the quality of superior acting set by Collette, and is a tense drama that will keep an audience thinking and involved to the final credits. The script is superb, the acting is top notch, the production design is accomplished and the musical score by Carlo Giacco is simply brilliant. There are twists and turns, flashbacks to incidents, investigation details, and discoveries bordering on the occult that spin this dark yarn like a helix of fear. Sally interviews Alex, observes his behavior and manages to get inside his mind, learn about the historical data that has directed the evil from her astute questioning sessions with Alex, and begins to follow her own intuition about the case. Enter the police: McKenzie (Richard Roxburgh) arrests and charges Alex with murder, but requires substantiation from a forensic psychologist Sally (the always superb Toni Collette). Alex is horrified and yet fascinated with the ritual-influenced deaths that begin to occur and when Nigel himself is murdered, Alex is the blamed. The two boys are placed together as roommates, much to Alex's objections, and gradually secrets are unraveled that show how the two boys become, via gestalt, a sum of evil greater than its parts. Into this setting arrives a new student Nigel (an equally fine young Tom Sturridge) who is a darkly quiet, malevolent, bright lad preoccupied with history and necrophilia. The setting is an all boys' prep school and among the students is Alex (a very fine young Eddie Redmayne) who happens to be the son of the headmaster (Patrick Malahide) and is a brilliant scholar - if somewhat of a troublemaker at the same time. Reed and his talented cast and production staff deserve better as this is a stunning psychological drama well worth seeing. The original title is so much more apropos of the story: the alternate title tends to make the audience pass over 'just another death film' category that prevents this excellent little film from appealing to a wide audience. For some strange reason the very fine Australian/British film LIKE MINDS underwent a name change and hit the US market as MURDEROUS INTENT.
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