The Veil

The Veil casts Jessica Alba as Maggie Price, a documentary filmmaker who convinces Lily Rabe’s Sarah to return to the compound where her religious-cult family committed suicide decades earlier – with trouble ensuing as it becomes more and more clear that the characters aren’t exactly alone in the isolated locale. It’s an intriguing setup that is, unfortunately, employed to less-than-engrossing effect by director Phil Joanou and scripter Robert Ben Garant, as the former employs an often excruciatingly deliberate pace that highlights the meandering, uneventful nature of the latter’s screenplay. Far too much screen time is spent detailing the characters’ initial exploration of the remote grounds and, eventually, their investigation into what really happened there, which predictably ensures that The Veil suffers from a midsection that drags to an almost unreasonable extent – with, admittedly, Joanou’s stylish visuals and the ongoing inclusion of jump scares/bursts of violence elevating one’s waning interest on a sporadic basis. It’s worth noting, too, that the movie benefits substantially from Thomas Jane’s agreeably broad turn as the leader of the aforementioned cult, as the actor’s scenery-chewing shenanigans prove effective at injecting much-needed life and electricity into the otherwise dour proceedings. The Veil‘s expanded-from-a-short-film feel ultimately prevents it from making the impact that Joanou has certainly intended, however, while the decidedly anticlimactic closing stretch ensures that the whole thing ends on a regrettably (and disappointingly) forgettable note.

** out of ****