This is the kind of film that bitterly divides an audience. It has a complex script that teeters precariously close to the edge of convolution and being too clever for its own good. And yet for those who like it -- I count myself among their number -- 'The Dark Hours' is the kind of film that stays with you for a long time after you've finished watching it as you chew over its possibilities again and again. It is a fascinating epistemological exercise.
What I like about this movie is what may actually be more aggravating for others. I like that it doesn't tie up very nicely with an easy explanation. We, as an audience, can't actually know for sure what happens with certainty. The beauty of the film (aside from a stellar acting job by the always excellent Aidan Devine) is the use of an unreliable perspective. We learn through the course of the script that the doctor is terminally ill with cancer and that she is treating herself illegally with an experimental drug. The drug has a huge plus in that stops tumors from growing and spreading. Of course it also has two major negative side effects: hallucinatory visions and an eventual coma from which no emergence seems probable. The Doctor's view of the world (and by extension ours) is compromised by the time she gets to the restaurant and begins to hallucinate. By the end of the film everything we see is untrustworthy and suspect.
Return now to this notion of not actually knowing what goes on. It does seem fairly clear that she either suspects or discovers an adulterous affair between her husband and sister. It also seems fairly certain that when she goes into the bathroom she overdoses on the drug. Does she commit suicide after confessing her illness to her husband and sister, or, with psychopathic Harlan acting as a messenger from her subconscious, does she discover in her coma that she has stumbled on to the lovers and murdered them in a moment of insanity with an axe? I lean towards the first possibility since it explains the rattling of the doorknob that she interprets as mice in the attic. There are many strong cases to be made for the other. The important thing though is to give 'The Dark Hours' a chance. The script doesn't really know that answer but the fun of knowing that you can't really know what happened doesn't bother me. Throw in a lightening quick pace and great tension to compliment very good performances from both Kate Greenhouse and Aidan Devine and I think you've got a pretty good movie to invest your time in.
What I like about this movie is what may actually be more aggravating for others. I like that it doesn't tie up very nicely with an easy explanation. We, as an audience, can't actually know for sure what happens with certainty. The beauty of the film (aside from a stellar acting job by the always excellent Aidan Devine) is the use of an unreliable perspective. We learn through the course of the script that the doctor is terminally ill with cancer and that she is treating herself illegally with an experimental drug. The drug has a huge plus in that stops tumors from growing and spreading. Of course it also has two major negative side effects: hallucinatory visions and an eventual coma from which no emergence seems probable. The Doctor's view of the world (and by extension ours) is compromised by the time she gets to the restaurant and begins to hallucinate. By the end of the film everything we see is untrustworthy and suspect.
Return now to this notion of not actually knowing what goes on. It does seem fairly clear that she either suspects or discovers an adulterous affair between her husband and sister. It also seems fairly certain that when she goes into the bathroom she overdoses on the drug. Does she commit suicide after confessing her illness to her husband and sister, or, with psychopathic Harlan acting as a messenger from her subconscious, does she discover in her coma that she has stumbled on to the lovers and murdered them in a moment of insanity with an axe? I lean towards the first possibility since it explains the rattling of the doorknob that she interprets as mice in the attic. There are many strong cases to be made for the other. The important thing though is to give 'The Dark Hours' a chance. The script doesn't really know that answer but the fun of knowing that you can't really know what happened doesn't bother me. Throw in a lightening quick pace and great tension to compliment very good performances from both Kate Greenhouse and Aidan Devine and I think you've got a pretty good movie to invest your time in.