Jamie Marks is dead (2014)

Director: Carter Smith

Starring: Morgan Saylor, Noah Silver, Cameron Monaghan

In a wintry small town, the body of a teenager named Jamie Marks is found by the river. Adam, the star of his cross-country team, becomes fascinated with Jamie-a boy nobody really knew or interacted with, except occasionally to bully him. When Jamie’s ghost begins to appear both to Adam and Gracie, the classmate who discovered the body, Adam is caught between two worlds. He has a budding romance with Gracie, but he also feels a deep connection to Jamie, who brings him closer to the world of the undead. 

Well, if their intention was to make an unconventional, weird film, they’ve succeeded. Only, the film is very slow moving and all the pieces doesn’t seem to gel together. More often than not, it felt like the film was going nowhere…slowly… The ending was satisfying, though, as Adam assisted Jamie in moving through the figurative tunnel to the other side (or literal in this film).

Jamie Marks looks a lot like Harry Potter and I can’t help but wonder whether this was intentional. The actors aren’t really given much to do in the film and there’s a persistent feeling of deja vu. I’m also not sure of the relevance of the Frances character and whether she actually belongs in this film. Adam’s mother (Liv Tyler) is also a very passive character and all she does is bond with the neighbor, who paralyzed her in a car accident, but I don’t get the relevance of all of this. It felt like a bunch of ideas thrown in a blender with no real payoff.