StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Adeel Hail
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Allison Davies
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin
The movie really just wants to entertain people.
salaheazy
The first and the investigation with the fbi agents was good until the last 27min then everything goes wrong
and what about the death of Kris
slundy-19788
Maybe unfair to compare Shimmer Lake to the greatness of Memento, but I could not help feeling that this was the inspiring film, so the contrasts become clear.Whereas Memento's backward reveals at each stage were deeply thought-provoking, the reveals of Shimmer Lake were mostly a case of "so what?".Only an idiot could miss the fact that the death of a child was the core theme. The inclusion of all the characters involved in that death and resulting injustice made clear that revenge was the clear motive (not the money). The self-professed oh-so-clean sheriff in a dirty town was a further obvious hook. The final reveal was, accordingly, pretty obvious and disappointing.As a final damning comparison, Memento DVD's had an option to play the movie in chronological sequence, which gave an even darker view of the manipulations and machinations. Watching Shimmer Lake in its correct time sequence would rank it way below an episode of Columbo (famed for telling you the killer from the beginning).Watchable, But Poor.
Bob An
This film is really not bad. It was entertaining and interesting from the beginning til the end. The fact that it goes from the end to the beginning of the story makes it even more interesting in a way that you have to remember all the details with hope not to miss anything important and solve the story - like the tattoo arm that killed the guy.I have to admit that I was surprised by the truth and that adds to the + of this film.Low budget but the actors were all pretty good. Nice thriller with elements of comedy which I must say I did not find funny at all, but that does not make this film less interesting.Maybe the back story which triggered all of this - the accident in which a child is killed could have been explored more - though on the 2nd thought - it may not have added anything to the story. But as it is the one thing that started all...All in all, good way to spend your 90 minutes. 7 from me. Though it is close to 8.
Robert Thorpe
With very few dark comedy thrillers out there, or thrillers at all for that matter, I had decided to check this little film out. The gimmick is telling the story backwards, which has been done a 1000 times and rarely works. Instead when gimmicks are used, it takes the focus away from the story which is usually ill conceived and predictable, as with this film. When gimmicks are used as a storytelling device, it must be used to enhance the story (Irreversible, Memento are two brilliant ones) not just as a way to tell a story. Putting cohesive stories together within the framework of a gimmick takes precision and this film clearly lacked it. For anyone that did not get the story from the Thursday (second day) reveal, and I am talking the entire story, you simply were not paying attention. Telling a story backwards has to be more than just a simple delivery method, it must be apart of the story. This film is not that funny, despite the other reviewers, and the moments that are suppose to be funny are forced, because of the abundance exposition. Literally, every character tells you what they are thinking and what they are doing. No one is thinking in this film. It simply is poorly written. The direction is less than as Ron Livingston who is great is just a cog in the oil-less machine. All the comedy is forced down our throat because it is not naturally written or performed and that falls on the director. I found myself bored and playing on my phone. Not to mention, it is a simple revenge story that has no imagination to it. UNLIKE FARGO that someone mentioned in a review, this film has no heart, no sense of what it is and what it wants to say about the subject matter. Very flat.