Downloading Nancy Debuts at Sundance Film Festival

Wow. After watching the trailer, that is all I can say about the debut of Downloading Nancy at the Sundance Film Festival. This movie is causing a stir at the festival, and rightfully so due to its intense imagery and absolutely twisted storytelling.

In the just the three minutes it took me to watch the trailer I was both captivated and disturbed at the exact same time. The movie is about a woman, Maria Bello, who is unhappy with her marriage and uses the Internet in order to find someone to kill her.

One scene in the trailer features the man, Jason Patric, running a shard of glass up and down her naked body. Another features Patric getting pummeled by her husband. In one scene appears to be slitting her wrists, and in another shot she's walking into a mousetrap blindfolded. I have never seen another movie trailer quite like this one.

Downloading Nancy is going to be one of those movies you either love or hate. Some articles are already mentioning Bello for an Oscar in 2009 if this movie makes it to mainstream movie theatres. This movie resonates and makes you wonder if people really do get this emotionally beat up, so much so that they begin to find comfort in pain.

Chances are it will be tough to draw comparisons with this film because the disturbing intensity feels like it could be so real. This film will make you cringe, much in the same way you did when you witnessed the woman jump in the tank of syringes in Saw II. The difference is that? How many people out there really think that the scenarios in the Saw films actually happen? Downloading Nancy aims to convince you that this is reality.

This movie might also draw comparisons to Hard Candy, the movie featuring Ellen Page (Juno) as a 14 year old girl who suspects a 32 year old photographer of being a photographer and allows him to lure her to his place over the Internet where she flips the switch in an attempt to expose him in a cat and mouse game. Much like Downloading Nancy, you have the aspect of the connection made over the Internet and what follows is a demented and intriguing plot, with a phenomenal performance from a female lead.