Movie Review: ‘Don’t Go’

Review by Caitlin Zeigler

Ben (Stephen Dorff) and Hazel (Melissa George) lose their daughter unexpectedly and through a reason Hazel only partially knows. Ben goes to work at a Catholic school for Father Sean (Simon Delaney) and Hazel opens up her family’s bed and breakfast-style hotel six months after the tragedy. While grieving, Ben keeps having a reoccurring dream of his family at the beach, with his daughter still being alive. At first, Ben thinks he’s grieving, but soon begins to see signs that he might be able to save his daughter. It’s possible that the dream is a memory, where he can go back in time and save his daughter. At the same time Hazel’s friend, Serena (Aoibhinn McGinnity), comes to visit and she’s in terrible shape. She looks bad and can’t stop drinking, as her affair with Ben made her feel less than when he started pretending nothing ever happened. While Ben is trying to piece together what he needs to do to save his daughter, Serena is becoming more and more unstable. When she takes her life, Ben finally realizes what he needs to do to make everything better.

The acting is great, but the movie is okay. It doesn’t wow you or explain how time travel is possible only in the one memory. The plot progresses steadily, but it goes from Ben messed up to he made it worse to he can fix it when he realizes he shouldn’t have messed everything up in the first place. The film looks good, but the plot feels like it’s going from point A to point B. There’s something missing that could have made this better than what it was. It still is a decent film, it’s just not something that’s going to excite you or make you feel some type of way.