Ghosts
can’t hurt us. They are just kind of creepy and in some cases awkwardly embarrassing.
That is the general premise of this adaptation of Daniels Waters’ YA novel, Break My Heart One Thousand Times.
Technically, they are called remnants or rems and they are more like holograms
on a daily repeat cycle than tradition chains-in-the attic ghosts. The
important point is they can never interact with living human—or so we are
assured in Scott Speer’s I Still See You (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in select theaters.
Following
a cataclysmic disaster at a Promethean research lab (following in the tradition
of the Flashforward TV show), a large
swath of Chicagoland land was killed instantly, but came back as rems. It was
thought that they recreate important events in their lives, but there really
seems to be no rhyme or reason to it all. For instance, Veronica Calder’s
father appears every morning, sipping coffee at the breakfast table.
Calder
is convinced rems are proliferating at an increasing rate, but the government
denies such rumors, so set your mind at rest. Still, she does have some
compelling anecdotal evidence, like the punk rem that just started appearing to
her in the bathroom, making vague but ominous threats. He seems to be breaking the rules governing
rems, or at least bending them like Gumby. Naturally, when confronted with this
world-shaking phenomenon, she seeks the help of her local Holden Caufield
wannabe, rem-obsessed transfer student Kirk Lane.
ISSY has a handful of
inventively spooky scenes that were presumably lifted straight from Waters’
source novel. However, the way it plays fast and loose with the nature of rems
is frustrating. Ultimately, it is unclear whether there is more to the ghostly
projections than previously assumed, or Jason Fuchs’ adapted screenplay is just
rather sloppy.
At
the risk of issuing fate praise, it should be stipulated Bella Thorne carries
the silliness quite well. She also builds up some nice energy with Richard
Harmon’s Lane in their scenes together. However, the supposedly secret villain
is so obnoxious and conspicuously suspicious, it damages the credibility of the
other major characters, for being so slow on the up-take.
