Freeze Frame

2004
6.3| 1h39m| R| en| More Info
Released: 01 May 2004 Released
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Sean Veil is an ultra paranoid murder suspect who takes to filming himself round the clock to provide an alibi, just in case he's ever accused of another crime. Problems arise however when the police do come calling and the one tape that can prove his innocence has mysteriously disappeared.

Genre

Drama, Thriller, Crime

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Director

John Simpson

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Freeze Frame Audience Reviews

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded
Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
sol1218 **SPOILER ALERT*** Having been accused of the massacre of Susan Jasper, Andrea Grimason, and her twin six-year daughters Moira & Maggie, Gabriella Henriette & Emilt Anthony, Sean Veil, Lee Evens, was set to stand trial for multiple murder.With the circus atmosphere created over the killing of the Jaspers by the media and noted police forensics profiler Saul Seger, Ian McNeice, the charges against Veil were thrown out and him freed without as much as having to stand trial. On the day that Vail was set free the husband and father of Susan Moira & Maggie the bereaved Sam Jasper (Martin McSharry), who survived the massacre, overcome with grief hung himself.Vail becomes ultra-paranoid of him being set up by the police since they felt that he was guilty of the Jasper murders an got off Scot-free. It's then that Vail has every movement that he makes recorded on tape to prove where he is just in case he's to be framed by the police for another murder, like that of the Jasper family, that he didn't commit.This plan of Vail keeps the police off his back until one day, just two days before the 10th anniversary of the Jasper killings, he's hauled into the local police station for the murder of Mary Shaw, Rachel O'Riondan, who was killed outside a London Pub on the night of October 15/16, 1998. It turned out that with all the tapes that Vail had recorded of himself since his acquittal of the Jasper murders that ones covering the time of Mary Shaw's murder were strangely and mysteriously missing from his film vault! Was Vail set up in Mary Shaw's murder by the police with the only piece of evidence that can clear him, the October 15/16 1998 video tape cassettes, stolen by the cops themselves! And if so was Miss. Shaw murdered by the very people, the police, who are now using her death to frame the innocent Sean Vail!A lot like the innovated from the end to the beginning thriller "Memento" the movie "Freeze Fame" strengths lie in its use of its camera angles, as many as four in one frame, and zoom-like flashbacks then its very complicated storyline. The story itself is your usual man trying to prove his innocence against overwhelming odds type movie but with a twist. A twist that turns the entire film upside down with its unveiling the reasons just why the Jaspers were murdered. And why those murders had to be covered up to the point of having to frame an innocent man, Sean Vail, for committing them.Even though he's in fact absolved, by a judge not a jury, of the crimes that he's accused of Vail is certain that his life will never be the same again. Vail is soon proved to be right with the persons who were in charge of the Jasper murder case Det. Louis Emeric, Sean McGinley, together with police forensic profiler Saul Seager telling the public, after Vail was acquitted, that they'll do everything to have him re-arrested for the Jasper murders being that, in their minds, the case was still active. Both Emeric & Seager are so sure that Vail is guilty that they predict that he'll murder again!With the Mary Shaw murder hanging over his head Vail, with the tapes that can exonerate him missing, is now in danger, if convicted, of being sent to prison for 30 years. This in another murder, like that of the Jaspers, he didn't commit! It now becomes apparent to Vail at least that the Jaspers murders and that of Mary Shaw are somehow connected!****SPOILER**** The film "Freeze Frame" builds up to a really powerhouse ending that has all those involved in the Jasper killings the cops Sean Vail and even the reporter Katie Carter, Rachael Stirling, trying to prove Vail's innocence having deep and dark secrets in just what their involvement in them really were. Vail who's recordings of himself was to be his alibi in any future murders that he feels he's to be framed for turn out to be his own undoing in leaving them open for someone, like the vindictive police, to heist. It's in the end that not only the real reason for the Jasper, as well as Mary Shaw, murders surfaces but also who used them to frame Vail! And possibly, with the help of his fellow convicts, have Vail murdered while behind bars in order to keep that socking truth from ever seeing the light of day!
Roland E. Zwick Sean Veil is the ultimate paranoiac, a man so convinced that everyone is out to get him that he's even begun spying on HIMSELF. However, there is actually a method to his madness, for unlike many paranoiacs, Sean has a valid reason to be fearful and suspicious of those around him. About ten years prior to the time of the story, Sean was falsely arrested for the brutal slaying of a woman and her two young daughters - a crime for which he was eventually acquitted, although the experience has left him emotionally devastated and psychologically damaged. His reputation ruined, Sean has since devised an elaborate system whereby he can videotape himself 24/7, so that he will always have an alibi if someone ever attempts to accuse him again of a crime he didn't commit. Unfortunately, Sean soon discovers that even the latest in modern technology can't guarantee his safety if the forces out to get him can figure out how to beat him at his own game.This quirky and original Irish film suffers a bit from the constraints of its budget and the amateurishness of some of the performances. Director John Simpson's split screen technique, though intriguing at first, becomes a bit trying after awhile, and the storyline is not always as cleanly and clearly developed as it might be, although the drab, colorless look of the film perfectly reflects the drab, colorless life of its protagonist.The movie overrides most of its flaws thanks to one element that is the real thing: Lee Evans' searing and uncompromising portrayal of an innocent man driven to the brink of madness by his obsessive need to prove that innocence. With his nervous, soft-spoken demeanor and constant look of terrified submission, Evans makes what could have been a creepy, repulsive character into a thoroughly sympathetic figure. We find ourselves so drawn to his predicament and so involved in his fate that, even at those moments when the movie itself falls flat, we stick with it anyway.
blindognathan (I apologize for the title of this review, but it's one of Lee's lines that has always stuck in my mind. That and his wicked scream at the start and end of the movie- the one he lets out when he shaves his head; and then, again when he stands by the three, dead bodies in another part of his 'home'.) Anyway: can I just say that I love, love, love this movie. Up until seeing it; all I knew of Lee was his comedy- so I never once imagined how genuinely creepy or serious he could be, until I made the decision to go and rent this movie from my local blockbuster video shop . . .and I must also profess to being just a little bit frightened by his performance (especially during the scene when he's interrogating/threatening-to-kill the Ian McNiece character; Seiger. (And, like many of you who have already reviewed this film; I felt a good deal of compassion for Lee's character- among one, maybe two others.)I mean; for an innocent man to be accused/convicted of such a heinous crime as murder can't be the best feeling in the world- but it's something that happens all the time! So; in a bizarre way; this film makes the audience confront the awesome feelings of sadness, confusion, paranoia- generally all the things Lee's character goes through, all the way to the end. This movie is very well cast. (I can't see anyone else playing 'Sean' except for Lee!) The writing, I must say, is very much like one of those crime-murder-mystery novels you'd see on a dusty bookshop shelf somewhere. The sound design is clever. The lighting effects are very surreal- and the music is another thing that- since my first, initial time of watching it- has stuck with me. (Much like that weird song in 'The Ring', and things like that.)One of my favourite scenes in this movie comes just before the credits- when one of the accusing police officers looks at 'Sean' and asks him; how he would feel if the video-recording the two of them had just watched; was to- somehow- get 'lost.' Well, Sean is not fussed by this in the slightest! He simply looks at the police officer and says: he's 'alibied up.'; because: "I emailed it to the papers before you got here!" YES!!!!! NICE ONE, LEE!!!!!
24540647 Firstly, I have to say Lee Evans is without doubt stunning in this film. We can only hope that he gets further meaty roles on the back of this performance.A triple murder suspect has his case thrown out of court due to police incompetence. Vowing his innocence, he becomes a paranoid who tapes himself "24/7/52" and keeps the tapes in a special vault. Just before the 10th anniversary of the murders, he is again arrested on suspicion of murder, and when he tries to produce the relevant tapes they are missing.The only downside to this superbly edited, visually stunning film is the lack of suspects as there are only half a dozen characters throughout. Other than that, it's well worth watching. Unlike most people here, I even enjoyed the ending (especially Evans last words!)