Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

LeonLouisRicci An Uppity Prep School is the Setting for This Somewhat Creepy Psychological Story of Two Smart Students Clashing Over Issues Involving Mind Control, Secret Societies, and Historical Cult and Religious Practices.It is a Dense and Diabolical Unfolding of Police Procedures and Eerie Encounters Involving One of the Students Being Arrested for the Murder of the Other and the Details are Told In Flashback from the Point of View of the Suspect.Interviewing Eddie Redmayne (the aforementioned suspect), in His Debut Film, is Toni Collette as a Police Psychologist Trying to Uncover the Truth. Of Course the "Truth" is Evasive and Anything But Easy to Follow or Get a Grasp Because it is Vague and Illusive. What Unfolds is a Complicated Tale of "Old Male Bonding" Rituals Involving Club Membership that has Existed for Centuries. Exposed in the Backdrop of the Crime/Crimes are Links to "Knights Templar", and Secret Clubs that Reach the Families of Most Everyone Involved Here, Including the Police.The Movie Can Meander and Lose Track of Itself From Time to Time, and the Viewer May Be Confused and Disoriented, and that Seems to the Be the Point of the Mystery. Because the Participants are Manipulative and Deceiving the Investigators About the Ritualistic Crimes and it is Never Clear Who is Telling the Truth and What is Going On, by Design.Most Casual Viewers of Crime Procedurals are Most Likely Going to Be Frustrated Because the Film is a Heavy Load and the Twists are Many and in Some Cases a Long Time Coming in This Intriguing Creepfest Layden With Mind Manipualtion and Bizarre, Grisly Murders. Worth a Watch Because it is Unusual with Wordy Explanations Combining Ancient History and Current Abnormal Psychology.

Tammoncrieff Like Minds contains much to recommend it and much to annoy. Overall, it's well acted, atmospheric, intriguing and interesting and if you love Eddie Redmayne, here's a real treat to see him playing against type.It's a British(specifically Yorkshire)/Australian co-pro with an apparent requirement to be shot in both locations. It's clearly set geographically in the North of England but the entire cast speak as if from the South. OK, it's set in an English public (i.e. private) school and everyone is posh - but the police also are not depicted as local and there's never a reference to where the school is supposed to be. Most jarring is that the scenes set on trains and on railway lines must have been shot in Australia because British trains look completely different and the carriage interiors just can't be in England. In a film that requires suspension of disbelief lack of authenticity in locations undermines the movie.Toni Collette nearly passes herself off as English but her accent slips from time to time. There's no reason why she couldn't be an Australian in this role. Her part is not written up enough for her - she doesn't have any great exchanges with Eddie Redmayne, although there's an electric scene when she goes into a dark basement where she excels. However Richard Roxburgh is playing a local cop in a rural region of the UK and his accent is all over the place. He is not convincing as British. Combined with the Australian locations, the film loses impact for a British audience, which is its most obvious market, because you start thinking about its bi-national production.The main protagonist, Eddie Redmayne gives a sterling, mesmerising lead performance that makes the film worth watching. Tom Sturridge is good too, though less beautiful, charismatic and internally haunting than he really needs to be. What they do get completely right is that teenage repressed love/hate symbiotic rivalry thing with undertones of latent homosexuality. Patrick Malahide does his usual thing as an unsympathetic headmaster and his usual thing is superb.The film starts and ends well, but it does slip into Da Vinci Code/Harry Potter historic mumbo jumbo magic three quarters of the way through. This could be put down to the narrative being based on the deliberately fantastic flashbacks of one of the the boys or on the fantasy ideas of the other troubled teenager. That none of the boys are actually boys but played by men in their 20s again slightly undermines this as they are just too grown up and sophisticated.But that's the plot McGuffin. The atmosphere, the photography, the tension and the plot outcome and the twists are well handled.

essanox This movie is simply beautiful. The colour palette reminiscent of a cold stainless steel morgue or the impersonal fluorescent lights in a inner city waiting room sets a sterile stage for a sparely-acted cold-blooded autopsy. The characters bring to mind, at different points, Thomas Harris' Hannibal Rising and John Knowles' A Separate Peace. There's a current of knife-edge homo-eroticism running beneath the bloodless bodies and half-hearted allusions to conspiracy and myth. However, sadly enough, the whole supposed moving force with the order, the Cathars and the Knights Templar is never fully explained, and detracts from the tensions between the two boys. In addition, the ending is far too vague. What was the inspector really up to? What is the involvement with the adults' "club"? What's which the playing card? I realize the director probably wanted to leave the ending open to discussion, but one finds it a little too vague. Has Nigel's "purpose" moved on to Alex? Was Alex really the one at fault the entire time? Are the boys so "like" that there is no one or the other? In conclusion,this potentially excellent exploration of the relationship between two disturbed boys is subtracted from by the attempt at a suspense film ending. A beautiful picture, but at the end of the equation, a disappointing result. Watch it, revel in it, but expect to realize it could have been so much more. 8/10

Agnelin "Like minds" starts out from a very interesting and engaging premise, whereby we find the 17-year-old Alex charged with shooting his classmate Nigel dead. The police detective in charge of the case (Richard Roxburgh) firmly believes Alex is a psychopath, and asks psychologist Sally Rowe (Toni Collette) to interview him and try to get a confession from him. But Alex is a smart, mysterious and secretive kid, and Sally will quickly be intrigued enough to get personally involved in the case. Little by little, we'll find out there's much more to Nigel's death than the gunshot incident, since Alex will tell Sally that Nigel had, and still has, some strange and powerful form of mental influence on him.The movie starts out well, but quickly goes downhill, and fast, up to a crashing finale. The first few sequences aside, it never manages to offer anything remotely close to suspense or thrill, even though you can tell it tries hard. The characters are only barely written, and, despite the writers' efforts, Alex and Nigel are little more than the stereotypical teen thriller weirdos with little depth to them. The movie fails at every thing it attempts to be: a psychological study of characters, an "original" thriller involving teenagers, a drama about teen angst in a hostile world... you name it. There are bits and pieces of all those subgenres, but the movie just goes nowhere, and does so at a killing slow pace.I give this movie three stars because it has such good actors as Richard Roxburgh and Toni Collette (although neither is at their best here), because of the settings (very somber and well made; too bad the story wasn't at par with them) and because the idea was good.