The Grief Tourist

2013 "He Goes to Dark Places..."
5| 1h24m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 23 August 2013 Released
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JIM TAHANA doesn't leave much of an impression when he passes you by. But look closer and you'll sense his hunger - the deep hunger of an insatiable American soul - always scanning to devour something - anything that might fill the searing, unexplained void within him. Jim obsesses over the hobby that has been part of his DNA since he was a young boy: grief tourism - the act of traveling with the intent to visit places of tragedy or disaster. Every year his week-long vacations from work are spent going to grief tourist locations in the lives of different serial killers he is fascinated with. This years obsession is Carl Marznap, a mass murder from New Orleans, Louisiana. But this trip is no ordinary vacation as Jim's rancid sexual impulses and weakening grip on reality deteriorate into a violent despair that will ultimately unlock an unspeakable secret festering within him, bringing The Grief Tourist to it's brutal and shocking finale...

Genre

Drama, Thriller

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Director

Suri Krishnamma

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The Grief Tourist Audience Reviews

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
cuda_71 I thought Melanie's character was not needed. She also delivered a less than 'good' performance. I don't know if the Director thought he could cash in on her star power or what he was thinking by allowing her to be in this movie. I felt she sunk the movie faster than it was already sinking on its own. Her weak attempts at crying forced me to fast forward her parts in the movie altogether. The movie was on to something great then the writers or directors (maybe both) lost their way. Showing the other murders and far less of Melanie's character would have been great. The ambiguity of the prostitute in the next room was great because I wasn't sure if it was a man or a woman with a strap on. Some confusion on my part did set in when the reporter said that 6 transsexual prostitutes were murdered. That tells me it was a man. However, her/his phone conversation with the kid and going to Six Flags told me t was a woman. Confusing. HAD potential!
Deepack Dark Tourist took me on a ride I did not expect. The performances were so real I forgot I watching a movie. Frank John Hughes has an uncanny ability to present deep insight while structuring a story that allows you in... but not out. Michael Cudlitz in the new Charlie Bronson, a silent, powerful, talent who can think on screen without brooding. God only know what's in store for this miracle of expression, but I would bet big, big, things!The music by Austin Wintory is so profound, it found ways to creep into my being without drawing attention. What an underscore!Evocative, Provocative, Sensational!See this move! It will be an experience you're are not likely to forget!
Sufi Mohamed Grief tourism is an excursion to locations associated with tragedy. Travelers visit sites associated with death and murder. Dark Tourist, directed by Suri Krishnamma, exquisitely examines this fascination with pain in a manner that allows the audience to delve into the mind of a man who uses trauma to connect with others. This film encourages its audience to understand how feelings of loneliness and isolation devour victims who are unable to reach out to people around them.Michael Cudlitz (Southland, Running Scared) plays Jim Tahna, a security guard whose eagerness for grief tourism goes beyond that of mere fascination with death and destruction. Jim takes a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana to visit sites associated with mass murderer, Carl Marznap, a quietly chilling Pruitt Taylor Vince (Wild at Heart, Constantine). In between locating the places where Carl grew up and slaughtered innocents, Jim meets Betsy, a heartbreakingly stoic Melanie Griffith (Lolita, Working Girl).Cudlitz has a magnetism about him. He is able to maintain momentum between lucid expectation and crushing vulnerability with mere gestures, his limping step, and an emotive intelligence behind his eyes. Cudlitz plays Jim as a man of many layers whose desperate need to fill the unexplainable void within renders him incapable of sincerity. Jim knows exactly what to say to people and how to say it.Krishnamma's use of sound allows his audience to make the connection between Jim's insatiable need to bond with others while simultaneously preserving his isolation. The lighting is at times beautiful and accentuates the grotesque themes of the film. Trauma, sexual desire, brutal deaths, and painful memories are highlighted under Krishnamma's artful direction.The most intimate moments are surprisingly found during the Jim's voice overs, where we watch him go about his day. Paired with rhythmic, repetitive, and chaotic sounds, Jim is carried through the story methodically. This adds to the mounting tension that builds throughout the film as the reasons for Jim's fascination with pain are revealed.In Dark Tourist, Krishnamma deals with the notion of an audience's fascination with death and sexuality as a form of entertainment. It is as if he is prodding the audience to look inward and discover their own reasons for feeling such satisfaction. The concept of one being a bottomless void, a face, a name, a victim, plays heavily in this orchestrated piece that no provides no simplistic answers to the logic behind a serial killer's motive. Nothing is black and white.Dark Tourist is a film that calls to mind the thought of what it means to be a victim of a tragic event. It daringly and disturbingly draws the audience to the social dilemma victims of violent and sexual trauma face amongst peers, which is the fear of communication and the tendency to turn a blind eye. Cudlitz's portrayal of Jim during scenes where he is psychologically afflicted is masterful. In one scene Jim and Carl stand outside a prostitute's door. Jim is silent, still, almost trembling with the effort to hold himself against temptation. Here is the moment where change is imminent. Vince's quiet tones and Cudlitz's pregnant pause embodies the issue of trauma buried deeply into the psyche, and the struggle to keep the despair of its existence at bay.Read the rest here - http://bit.ly/18wwPag
deb_96817 This review was written by Amanda Baverstock, a UK resident who saw the film in London during Fright Fest. A spot on review! With her permission, I am posting here."Dark Tourist is a dark slice of cinema. No doubt about it. It makes for truly uncomfortable watching but please, do not let that put you off because if it does then you will certainly be missing out on an emotionally cerebral and breathtaking performance from Michael Cudlitz. Here he portrays a man quietly being torn apart by deep-seated inner demons like no other actor can.Cudlitz is in pretty much every scene, something I hadn't even noticed until a friend pointed it out to me afterwords. Now that takes some doing! To own the film so effortlessly that you don't realize just how few actors were actually involved in this project. Cudlitz's performance is never contrived. 'Dark Tourist' puts to good use his voice in a superbly sentient narrative thread that runs throughout the film. It draws you in, closer and closer towards to the inner turmoil that is Jim Tahna.Michael has an acting style that utilizes subtle nuance and body movement so naturally it's a joy to watch and both build towards a perfect picture of a tightly wound man who's hurting beyond measure.Whilst Cudlitz is definitely the lynchpin of the film, Melanie Griffiths brings her unique brand of vulnerability to a role so sympathetically portrayed that the whole cinema actually gasped in despair during one pivotal scene. I won't elaborate. You'll know which one when you watch! And Pruitt Taylor Vince always has immense presence and in this film he adds a hugely important layer to the plot."Dark Tourist' is not pleasant viewing in any shape or form.This film will certainly leave you thinking 'What if'. What if the characters involved simply had someone who listened to them at a time when they needed it most? It will certainly make you uncomfortable because it reflects the general murky malaise society has towards understanding and treating people with mental health issues and it leaves you questioning what would happen if more people had the help they needed, when they needed it most.So yes. I thoroughly recommend 'Dark Tourist'. It's a film for people desperately fed up with formulaic cinema, filmmaking that is afraid to challenge and it flips the bird at writers and producers content in churning out bland cookie cutter films."