Regression

Directed by Alejandro Amenábar, Regression follows grizzled cop Bruce Kenner (Ethan Hawke) as he springs into action after a young woman (Emma Watson’s Angela) accuses her father of unspeakable crimes. Filmmaker Amenábar, working from his own screenplay, kicks Regression off with a dry and exceedingly deliberate opening stretch that boasts few, if any, attributes designed to initially capture the viewer’s interest, and there’s little doubt, ultimately, that the aggressively arms-length atmosphere is compounded by a terminally underwhelming narrative and proliferation of far-from-dynamic performances – with, in terms of the latter, Hawke’s atypically one-note turn emblematic of the picture’s misguided, wrongheaded sensibilities. The completely dull and uninvolving narrative goes from bad to worse as Regression progresses into an often shockingly interminable midsection, as Amenábar weighs down the already-sluggish proceedings with a whole assortment of annoying, time-wasting attributes – including (and especially) an ongoing emphasis on Bruce’s are-they-real-or-are-they-in-his-head visions. By the time the laughable climax rolls around, Regression has cemented its place as a pervasively inept and thoroughly endless piece of work that remains a hopelessly tedious slog from start to finish.

no stars out of ****