''The Cry of the Owl'' is a 2009

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

based on Patricia Highsmith's 1962 book of the same name, and was directed by

Jamie Thraves Jamie Thraves (born James Thraves, 2 June 1969 in Romford, London) is a British film writer and director. Biography Thraves began making early short experimental films in 1989 at the University of Humberside, having previously studied illustrat ...

. It stars

Paddy Considine Patrick George Considine (born 5 September 1973) is an English actor, director, and screenwriter. He frequently collaborates with filmmaker/director Shane Meadows. He has received two British Academy Film Awards, three Evening Standard Britis ...

Julia Stiles Julia O'Hara Stiles (born March 28, 1981) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Stiles began acting at the age of 11 as part of New York's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. Her film debut was a small role in ''I'' ''Love Yo ...

, and

Karl Pruner Karl Pruner is a Canadian actor whose most notable work is in portraying Canadian Prime Minister John Turner in the 2002 mini-series '' Trudeau''. Career Amongst his other work, he did voice acting as Beta Ray Bill in the short-lived animated ...

. This is the third filming of the book after the 1987 French film adaptation by

Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...

and a German TV adaptation titled '' Der Schrei der Eule'' also from 1987. After Robert Forrester is caught by Jenny Thierolf, the girl he has been spying on, he becomes the victim of her manipulative advances. The disappearance of Jenny's fiancé Greg after a fight with Robert marks the beginning of a series of dangerous and ultimately fatal incidents.

Plot

Robert Forrester is going through a painful divorce from his wife Nickie. He begins spying on Jenny Thierolf, a girl living in the countryside, because to him she represents a state of harmony, a stark contrast to his own personal life. Jenny catches him one night, but instead of being upset, she invites him in and they talk. Jenny ends her relationship with her fiancé Greg, believing her chance meeting with Robert was an act of fate. Jenny's friends, who are still sympathetic towards Greg, disapprove of her choice. Jenny starts stalking Robert: She waits for him outside of his office, calls him late at night, and tries to sleep over at his house. He resists her advances and tells her that he has received a promotion at work and will be moving away to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, making any relationship between them impossible. Jenny offers to come with him to Philadelphia, but he declines. Later, when Robert is driving home on a lonely country road, Greg stops his car and attacks him. Though hurt by the younger and stronger Greg, Robert manages to knock Greg unconscious and into a river. He drags Greg out of the river and leaves him on the bank, Greg obviously alive as his breath is hard. Shortly thereafter, the police question Robert because Greg is missing. He admits that they fought and that he left the unconscious Greg near the river. The police speculate that Greg might be dead (though they have no body), either by accident or because Robert killed him. When Robert's employer learns he is a police suspect, he loses the promotion in Philadelphia and is suspended. Also, a colleague and former friend dissociates himself from Robert. He is attacked by Greg's father, who thinks Robert murdered his son. Drifting and aimless, Robert continues his uneasy relationship with Jenny, who has become convinced that he may have a bad omen over him (represented by the owl of the title, which is a common symbol of coming death). Jenny goes to visit Robert's ex-wife Nickie, who says she left him because he seemed like bad luck. A corpse is found in the river, and although it is in such a bad state that it is almost unidentifiable, the police believe it to be Greg's. Jenny then commits suicide, leaving a note that she and Robert had met after he stalked Jenny. Robert is befriended by the widower who lives next door to him. One night, Greg appears outside of the widower's house and fires a gun, seriously wounding the widower but only clipping Robert. The police place Robert in protective custody, and Greg threatens him again. Soon after, Robert is informed that Greg has been picked up by the police, and that it was Nickie who paid Greg to pretend to be dead to get him in trouble. When Robert drives to Jenny's house, he is met by Nickie and Greg. Nickie tries to persuade Robert to tell the police that she had nothing to do with setting him up, and warns him of an enraged and drunken Greg. Making matters worse, Greg's father calls to tell him that the widower he shot has died, making Greg a murderer. Greg attacks Robert with a knife; in the subsequent fight, Greg is knocked unconscious, but Nickie is fatally injured. Robert is again left as a suspect in an apparent crime scene. The final shot shows Robert looking out Jenny's window, reminiscent of his view on the house in the opening shots.

Cast

as Robert Forrester *

as Jenny Thierolf *

as Mr. Jaffe * James Gilbert as Greg Wyncoop * Phillip MacKenzie as Lavigne Client *

Gord Rand Gord Rand is a Canadian actor and playwright. He is most noted for his recurring role as Det. Marty Duko in the television series ''Orphan Black'', for which he was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Performance in a Guest Role in a Dramatic ...

as Jack Neilson *

Caroline Dhavernas Caroline Dhavernas (; born May 15, 1978) is a Canadian actress. She is best known in the United States for her collaborations with Bryan Fuller. She played Jaye Tyler in the Fox comedy-drama series ''Wonderfalls'', and Alana Bloom in the NBC psych ...

as Nickie Grace *

R. D. Reid R. D. Reid (September 22, 1944 - June 20, 2017) was a Canadian character actor known for his portrayal of Sergeant Purley Stebbins in the A&E TV original series, ''A Nero Wolfe Mystery'' (2001–2002), and the series pilot, '' The Golden Spiders: ...

as Mr. Kolbe *

Alex Karzis Constantine Alexander Karzis (born June 8, 1975) is a Canadian film and television actor, voiceover artist, singer, and musician. He was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. Life He played the roles of Bruce in the 1993 film '' I Love a Man ...

as Robert's lawyer * Marcia Laskowski as Nickie's lawyer *

Krista Bridges Krista Bridges (born 4 November 1968) is a Canadian actress. She has appeared in more than eighty films since 1988, and received a Genie Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 13th Genie Awards in 1992 for '' The Shower''."The Genie ...

as Elaine *

Nicholas Campbell Nicholas Campbell (born 24 March 1952) is a Canadian film, television and voice actor and filmmaker, who won three Gemini Awards for acting. He is known for such films as ''Naked Lunch'', ''Prozac Nation'', ''New Waterford Girl'' and the telev ...

as Jed Wyncoop *

Charlotte Sullivan Charlotte Sullivan is a Canadian actress. Career Sullivan began acting professionally as a child. Her first on-screen role was an extra in a Liza Minnelli music video. She has had starring roles in the film ''Harriet the Spy'' (1996) and the ...

as Sally Neilson * Robbie Campbell as Walt Nelson *

Jennifer Kydd Jennifer Kydd (born 1976) is a Canadian actress best known for her role as Paige Bradshaw in the Global series '' Falcon Beach''. Biography Kydd was born in 1976 in St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia, grew up in Cole Harbour and later moved to St. M ...

as Susie Escham * Dru Viergever as Bill *

Peter MacNeill Peter MacNeill is a Canadian film and television actor and voice-over artist who has starred in numerous television series and films. His film credits have included '' The Hanging Garden'' (for which MacNeill won a Genie Award for Best Suppo ...

as Sam Rhodes * Brian Bisson as Police Officer * Jimmy Byron as Police Officer * Jonah Allison as Police Officer *

Arnold Pinnock Arnold Pinnock (born 1967) is a Canadian actor who is perhaps best known for his appearance as Paul Greebie, Casey's guidance counselor, in ''Life with Derek''. Pinnock was born in Birmingham, England. His career began with sketch comedy at Toro ...

as Detective Anderson * Bruce McFee as Detective Lippenholtz * Chris Gillett as Mr. Thierolf * Maria Ricosa as Mrs. Thierolf * Sarah Podemski as Nurse

Film and book

Although being quite faithful to the novel, the film changes some details, including the dropping and adding of secondary characters. In the book, Nickie conspires against Robert (and has an affair) with Greg, although she is freshly re-married to the bland Ralph Jurgen. It is Ralph who informs Robert that Greg is actually alive and hiding (Robert then calls the police), while in the film Robert finds out at the police station. The final confrontation between Robert, Nickie and Greg takes place in Robert's flat, not in Jenny's house. Also, the distinctive use of the

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

song ''

A Kiss to Build a Dream On "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" is a song composed by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II. In 1935, Kalmar and Ruby wrote a song called "Moonlight on the Meadow" for the Marx Brothers film '' A Night at the Opera'' (1935) but the song ...

'' is the film's invention. According to Patricia Highsmith's former partner

Marijane Meaker Marijane Agnes Meaker (May 27, 1927 – November 21, 2022) was an American writer who, along with Tereska Torres, was credited with launching the lesbian pulp fiction genre, the only accessible novels on that theme in the 1950s. Under the name ...

, the character of Nickie was modeled after Meaker as a "retaliation".

Production and release

The film is an American-British-Canadian-French-German co-production. ''The Cry of the Owl'' was shot in Ontario, Canada, between October and December 2007. It premiered on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

and

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...

in most countries, with Canada and France being among the few exceptions. It was released in the UK on April 19, 2010, and in the US on June 8, 2010.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it has a approval rating based on reviews, with an average score of . Due to its limited release, reviews of ''The Cry of the Owl'' were sparse, and mostly reserved: *"British writer-director Jamie Thraves, who hails from music videos, works up a crisp, elegantly foreboding visual bleakness ��but, overall, it's the kind of technically proficient, deliberately paced, grim sleepwalk that leaves one cold rather than cracked open." – Robert Abele, ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' *"A far cry from suspenseful ��director Jamie Thraves, who wrote the screenplay, fails to draw out the novel's many intriguing elements." – Bruce DeMara, ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'' *"Well-acted, moody psychological thriller whose latent suspense relies on the ambiguity of its characters." – '' Lexikon des Internationalen Films''"Stimmungsvoller Psychothriller mit guten Darstellern, dessen latente Spannung sich aus der Doppelbödigkeit seiner Figuren speist." �
Review
in the online version of the ''Lexikon des Internationalen Films'', retrieved 2011-12-7.

References

External links

*
''The Cry of the Owl''
on Rottentomatoes.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Cry Of The Owl, The (2009 film) 2009 films 2009 crime drama films 2009 crime thriller films 2009 thriller drama films American crime drama films American crime thriller films American thriller drama films British crime drama films British crime thriller films British thriller drama films Canadian crime thriller films English-language Canadian films French crime drama films French crime thriller films English-language French films German crime thriller films English-language German films Films about stalking Films based on American novels Films based on works by Patricia Highsmith Murder in films Films scored by Jeff Danna American remakes of French films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films 2000s Canadian films 2000s British films 2000s French films 2000s German films