Two men (Eric Martinez, Brenden Whitney) and a woman (Mary Etuk) are
found dead in their house, and the forensic report suggests drug overdose,
murder and suicide. An injured woman, Mila (Vannessa Vasquez) is also
found in the home, and it looks as if she was a hostage ... but when
police want to question her the next day in hospital, they find out she's
gone ... It's been a few weeks ago that Mila has been taken hostage by
the trio of baddies, just because her car has broken down and she has
knocked on the wrong door for help, has been tortured and humiliated, and
the trio even killed her own mother (Jill Adler) when she has tried to
save her before her very eyes. But while the trio were kidnapping and
killing girls on a quite regular basis, she managed to stay alive, as her
background in criminal psychology has taught her just the right skills to
convince her torturers to leave her alive. But she has made escape
attempts aplenty, usually without success, but she has found out something
about her captors, something that convinced her to not trust local police. Mila
gone makes her more than just a material witness, it makes her a murder
suspect, and detective Salinas (Melissa Mars) insists on being put in
charge of tracking her down, also because her partner was killed by a
boobietrap when investigating the crime scene. But Salinas has no idea
what she has gotten herself into with this assignment, as Mila knows very
well how to defend herself - but she's far from the biggest problem here
... Now I have to say one thing up-front, Sorrow is not
a movie you can watch without dedicating your full attention to it: It's
not chronological but labyrinthine in structure, its flashbacks and
flashforwards are not always clearly indicated as such, not everything is
explained away eventually, not all plot threads are played out in full,
and quite a bit is left open to interpretation ... and all this works for
the movie rather than against it, ultimately presenting the viewer with
more of a genre puzzle than a straight-forward grindhouse throwback (which
the plot as such might suggest), and a puzzle that manages to give great
satisfaction when resolved. At the same time it keeps things tense and the
viewers on the edge of their seats. All this is thanks to a cleverly written
script, a very subtle directorial effort, and great key performances that
really bring the characters to life. Definitely worth a watch!
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