I found Descent to be a largely provocative piece. This isn't a pop corn movie that takes it easy on the audience. It's hard to watch at points because it is a story about pain. It taps into an emotional core that really drives itself home.This is a story about pain and abuse, not a revenge fantasy. There are elements of revenge fantasies in it, but the real truth is that the story is a criticism of the need and hunt for revenge when someone hurts us. It's a powerful work of fiction. Maya, played by Rosario Dawson, is constantly the subject of transgressions until she breaks after being raped. And then the story gets dark.After watching this film, I was in a deep despair for a few weeks. In the same sitting I watched Lars Von Trier's Antichrist with Willem Defoe. This was the darker movie. This was the movie that wrapped itself up in my mind and took root. It nested and festered and wouldn't leave me go.I strongly recommend you watch this if you are interested in drama that messes you up. If you want something safe, happy, and warm, this is not it. If you want to cry because you have a broken heart because the perfect couple just can't make it together but then oh goodness they do! Stay clear. This is not for you.This movie will mess you up and it is important that it messes you up. This is supposed to be hard to watch. If that sounds interesting to you, watch this flick. It's one of the best I've seen, but I like movies that mess me up.

Descent (2007) BOMB (out of 4)Lame and painful "drama" about a bright, young college girl (Rosario Dawson) who is raped by her date (Chad Faust) and soon finds herself at sex clubs doing cocaine and taking home various men. Since the rape her life is spinning out of control but she soon bumps into her rapist and decides to turn the table on him. I normally don't watch extras on a DVD unless it's a movie I enjoy or one I'm interested in but this horrid film had me curious so I checked out a few interviews with Dawson and her friend, director Lugacy. It's clear both women thought they were making something that "needed to be done" and something very important but it appears neither one had seen the film. I say that as a joke as I'm sure both had seen the film but this is a complete disaster from start to finish and in the end I couldn't help but find myself bored out of my mind. Lugacy must be a fan of Kubrick because she has dialogue and scenes that just go on and on and on. Clearly she wants these long scenes to draw the viewer in but let's face it, she's no Kubrick. These scenes are so mind-blowing awful that I couldn't help but want to hit the fast-forward button. The dialogue is poorly written and not once does any of it make you want to think. The incredibly bad sequences inside the sex club just go on forever and at the end of the scenes nothing has happened. We get bad sequences of Dawson standing in front of a mirror talking to herself or her involved in sex scenes yet she's fully dressed. The movie has the atmosphere of an exploitation movie but it never crosses into that territory until the final ten-minutes when the actual revenge takes place. I won't ruin the ending but it has an interesting twist that just doesn't work because by the time it comes most viewers, myself included, will either be sleeping, have turned the film off or simply won't care. The ending also doesn't work like it should just because the direction isn't strong enough to make it work. Dawson is someone I like but she's not very good here but a lot of this can be blamed on the screenplay. This is certainly trying to be a character study but her character never grows and instead of learning anything about her we just see her enter various stages but without any emotion behind them. The film received an NC-17 rating but I'd question this as there's not any nudity until the end and there's really very little profanity. The rape of Dawson is very tame so I'm guessing the MPAA once again struck the rating because of the male nudity that happens at the end. I've read other negative reviews saying you have to at least give the film credit for being brave but I'd disagree with that. I didn't find this film brave at all as the dark subject matter is hardly looked at and not once did I believe anything I was seeing. There might be a good story or idea here but everything is carried out so poorly that nothing works and in the end this movie started to get on my nerves by the fifteen-minute mark. Torture is something used in this film but the main victim is the viewer.

This is a sandwich film. There is something on both ends, but the middle is a disappointment. So, what you get is a 15-20 minute film that lasts over a hundred. This is particularly painful as the lighting was atrocious, and the sound was weak.Maya (the lovely Rosario Dawson) is date-raped and descends into a sort of depressive state that leads to alcohol and drugs. That's the whole middle of the film where she ends up moody and club hopping until she decides to get her life together and go back to graduate school. It is there as a teaching assistant, that she confronts the rapist (Chad Faust) again, and, it appears, that she is going to resume the relationship like nothing ever happened.Surprise! She has something else in mind. She enlists the aid of Marcus Patrick to get her revenge. The setup is sweet, but the actual revenge borders on pornographic. Just as the rape was brutal, so was the ending.No, despite two sex scenes, you see nothing of Rosario.

First of all, the leading lady, Rosario Dawson, is just about the coldest thing to see in a movie. Blank expressions all the way through. Absolutely no compassion for her. The scenes were so dark and the dialog so inaudible it became gruesome to watch. Brian Priest (interesting last name)and director Talia Lugacy (lunacy) wrote this boring trite. If this is Tribeca stuff, I'm glad I stayed away. Chad Faust, in full frontal nudity, ain't bad looking. His final scene with another dull actor, Marcus Patrik, was hard to take. First time I felt sorry for the villain. Was hoping Patrik got A.I.D.S. from his dirty deal. I think both Lugacy and Priest must be on some kinky trip with this trite. I found the subject matter done too often and encouraging others to take the law in their own hands. I also thought it too long in telling and really a boring movie to sit through. I had the DVD and fast through many scenes. I give it a 1 rating due to the looks of Chad Faust.