I'm a big fan of Refn, love the Pusher Trilogy, Bleeder, Bronson etc.But this, this was bloody awful.It goes NOWHERE.We have excruciatingly drawn out scenes and I got sick to death of John Turturro's pathetic gazes. His acting was pretty dismal as well.Where is the story? Where? Fear X is about a man who tries to find out why/who killed his wife. Yet, onwards from this 'plot' the whole film falls apart, not that it was together in the first place.Fear X tries to be suspenseful but you are wanting the pace of the film to speed up and get down to some action of some sort.Like I said there are long drawn out scenes where characters just stand there and take forever to deliver their tedious lines. BORING.It isn't clever film making, it isn't thrilling, its bloody boring.I found FEar X to be completely void of anything interesting. It just crawls along delivering nothing but stupid camera work that looks like its trying to be something from The Shining.And the ending was just the icing of the cake. Absolutely abysmal.Refn and co, this truly is a stinker.

I was drawn into this movie because of the moody atmosphere and the desire to see John Turturro's character resolve his personal mystery. He's a very interesting actor to watch because he's a bit off-beat and he knows how to use his face to reflect a wide range of emotions. (Watch him, for instance, in the scene where he views tapes of his wife's murder over and over.) As further elements were added to the film (the cop conspiracy) I thought, "OK, we're going to find out that the mystery is a really bigger thing than just a local accident." Although the idea of guys from Montana chasing a bad cop in Wisconsin seems a little far-fetched. But then the movie goes haywire and the director chickens out of a resolution with a lot of arty shots underscored by Brian Eno's typical hash of drones and blurps.I was not surprised to see at the end that this was a movie produced by a young European director, because there's a plague of them out there making senseless films (La Moustache, Saint-Ange, Cache, etc.) but hiding behind their pose as "auteurs." Maybe "hauteur" would be a more appropriate word. Directors who are funded by loads of EU organizations and don't have to rely on the free market dump out tons of garbage like this for the world to wonder at. If they had to compete in a Hollywood-style studio system they would be gone in a flash.Whatever you do, don't bother with this film. Like the French films I mentioned, the first hour leads you to believe that it might be worth watching. But it's not.

Harry Caine (John Turturro) is obsessed with finding his wife's murderer. Haunted by memories and hallucinations, Harry spends his spare time pouring over surveillance tapes from the scene of the murder - the mall where he is employed as a security guard. A vision of his late wife straying across the road to the neighbour eventually leads him there. Once inside the unoccupied house, he finds a strip of film, has it developed, and begins a quest to find the woman in one of the photographs. The search leads him to a small town and a confrontation with the man who killed his wife.Writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn makes it halfway through this tale before pouring on all the is this really happening? nonsense. Is Harry nuts? Is it all in his head? Has he concocted these events as a way of finally coming to grips with his grief? The first half hour or so of the film is somewhat intriguing. The second dull and absurd, not to mention old hat. If there actually is a conspiracy, well, that's been done to death. If it's all in Harry's head, well, that's been done several times already- by filmmakers with real talent.Musically, Brian Eno's ambient and atmospheric work was a highlight . He's wheeled out and dusted off the Yamaha DX7 synth. The piece played during credits/watching surveillance tapes exactly the same as the very beginning of U2's 'Where the streets have no name'. Oh well you can't beat a rock classic.In summary (1) there is no universally-accepted interpretation of the ending – even the director is lost on this one "It depends on how I feel that day. And of course that pisses off a lot of people because they're not used to a film without an ending. But what the f**k is an ending, you know?". And (2) I was actually hoping for a DVD directors commentary from Refn - I'd love to hear him try to justify this mess.

This is by far one of the greatest "understated" thrillers of all time...every scene, gesture, bit of dialog seemed to gnaw at me, draw me into a strange feeling that no matter what happens, the feeling of alienation will not go away...yes, there are one or two coincidences that seem a little too much, but if you just flow with it, you will enjoy it without having to know all the answers or have every loose end tied up for you..the photography is first rate, the atmosphere intense, and the acting is refreshingly real for a change....the movie scared me on a level I never expected....I highly recommend this move..some of the reviewers who trashed this movie probably just need to see explosions, bullets flying and chase scenes to be in suspense.....go see it!