Tom Sizemore is one of those actors who
have made a career out of playing tough guys. He's played cops,
gangsters, soldiers, thieves, cowboys, etc. The Pining just
might be the first film where he's played a priest. Honestly, I
could be totally wrong, but I think it's a solid assumption. It's
clear that he plays a priest because he dressed like a priest on the
poster and he's clutching a giant cross in his hand like one of the
priests in The Exorcist. It would appear from the poster that
Tom Sizemore is the lead in The Pining, but that is in fact, a
lie. He's without question, the most famous actor in this film, but
he doesn't have more than maybe 10 minutes of screen time. If you
had to ask me who the lead was, I'm actually not sure if I could tell
you. That's just the beginning. I don't think the film itself knows
anything about what's actually happening.
The basic plot of The Pining
appears to revolve around a series of mysterious deaths where the
victims are all linked by a group therapy session they all attended,
led of course, by Tom Sizemore, who plays Father William. The fact
that there is a religious aspect to the film also means that there is
a supernatural angle as well. All of the victims die off in spooky,
supernatural ways. One appears to involve a zombie. Another one
appears to involve a vampire, I think. Some of the other ones, I'm
still not quite sure. It looked to me like one of the victims wasn't
even at the therapy session, she just happens to be a sort of love
interest for someone who was. I use the phrase 'appears to be' a
lot because the incredibly dim cinematography made it rather
difficult to tell at times.
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| Is this a reality show? No. Awwww too bad. |
Every element of The Pining has
the traits of a low-budget horror film: terrible visual effects,
mind-bending story logic, amateur acting, and painfully fake
dialogue. The one thing it lacks that you tend to find in low-budget
horror is any sense of heart. These sorts of films tend to make up
for their technical and artistic faults with a sense of fun, and a
great big heart; and The Pining unfortunately, doesn't contain
any of this. In fact, the only thing The Pining has going for
it is the fact that Tom Sizemore is a part of the cast, and it didn't
even make proper use of that.
I'm honestly at a loss for words while
trying to find a reason for The Pining to exist. I sincerely
hope that the cast and crew had fun making it, and I really hope that
they learned some things about filmmaking so they can apply it to
whatever they end up making next, because otherwise I can't help but
think that this was all for nothing. The only good thing I can say
about The Pining is that it's only about 70 minutes long, so
at least I got it over with it quickly.
-Derek Miranda
