Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Inmechon The movie's only flaw is also a virtue: It's jammed with characters, stories, warmth and laughs.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Dianne Mann *** SPOILERS AHEAD! * * * This is a lovely and sad film about postpartum depression and young parents pressed beyond endurance by factors outside their control. The negative reception of this film by critical viewers was made possible by the film's own misguided promotion as a supernatural horror tale when it is in fact a strong psychological drama with possible paranormal elements. The picture of a creepy old hand poised menacingly over a cradle on the DVD cover invites the wrong viewing audience who will, of course, be disappointed in the film based on their reasonable expectations.My sense is that this storyline began with one plot and someone during the development of the film decided to intertwine another plot that would boost DVD sales. What a mistake that was! The secondary plot of a reclusive old woman haunted by a childhood memory nearly killed this movie. But if you are able to watch the film without anticipating the arrival of a sinister murderous ghost, you will be rewarded by a very different story.I enjoyed this film more the second time I watched it, knowing that what actually happens at the end of the film explains the importance of everything up to that point. If you don't understand or anticipate the actual ending of the original plot without ideas about evil spirits filling your mind, yes, the film moves too slowly and goes nowhere. But if you are anticipate the actual ending, you will know that the film was paced perfectly! PLOT: Frank and Julie have lost their previous babies to miscarriage or stillbirth. Finally a baby boy, Sam, is born alive, but Julie is so scarred by her previous losses that she cannot bond with the surviving boy. She falls into a deep and disabling postpartum depression. Frank (played beautifully by the earnest Lukas Haas) wants to be part of a normal young family starting out fresh with their firstborn son. Perhaps in desperation to realize his dream, he brings his depressed wife and infant son to an isolated country home hoping that the relaxing environment will alleviate Julie's symptoms and allow her over time to bond with their baby.OK, enough warnings, here come the SPOILERS: The baby tragically dies (SIDS?) within the first few days of the family's arrival to their new country home. Frank is outside the house when Sam dies. When he returns indoors, he finds his dead son covered by a blanket. Carefully laid atop the blanket is a necklace, the gift he had just given Juli in appreciation of her new motherhood.It is at this point that Sam dives into a psychotic break with reality, beginning with his delusion that his son is still alive. Nearly everything that happens in the film after he discovers his dead son is either hallucination or psychotic delusion. He refuses to accept that Sam is dead. He also refuses to accept that Julie has taken her own life after discovering Sam's dead body in the cradle. He blocks out the fact that he discovered her dead body at the bottom of the waterfalls the night that Sam died.Frank exists in a dark nightmarish world where Sam lives, smiles and coos like any normal baby and Julie continues to struggle bravely with her postpartum depression. In Frank's mind, Julie at first refuses but later insists on caring for Sam. The seemingly paranormal events are probably creations of Frank's psychosis. The psychosis is mixed with actual dreams of how Sam dies.Finally, there may be a haunting in this film, but it is not the evil sister spirit. There is the possibility that Julie's ghost is real to the plot. In this reading of the film, Julie's ghost yearns for reconciliation with her dead infant, but Frank's unwillingness to accept the fact that Sam is dead somehow interferes with Julie's ability to care for Sam in a ghostly afterworld.Haas's portrayal of Frank's sweetness, confusion and great love for his family are what carry this film and make it well worth watching twice. The unnecessary melodrama involving the old woman and her dead sister keep trying to pull the film under. If only director Brown had not made the old woman's character so frightening, strange and hysterical, The Cradle could have been a really good movie, possibly an 8. All we really needed from this character is a little history of her losses. Her key role in the plot is being the person who forces Frank to realize that his baby has been dead for several days. Brown didn't need to use the old woman to create a supernatural horror plot to wrap around the film's neck to strangle it before it could be born.I hope someday Brown edits this film so that it can emerge as the endearing sad story that makes it memorable.

jocedeg Writer and wife buy a house in a remote place. Writer has writer's block. Weird things occur around the baby. Could all these strange happenings be the visions of a troubled mind ? This movie is a succession of "false alerts" where you think something bad is happening but, hey, not really. It was either a dream, hallucination or just a misleading semi-scare.The tone shifts from mystery to occult, just to confuse you about what's really happening. Maybe there's a ghost involved, or maybe the old woman telling that horrific story about a born-dead baby is just nuts.When you get to the end, you'll be offered a very unsatisfying quasi-explanation and you'll realize that this 90 minutes movie that feels like it's 180 minutes could have been done in a 60 minutes "Masters of Horror" format.Unfortunately, the director's no "Master" and the horror's mostly absent.Waste of time.

PhilipGHarris I'm not sure why this has been slaughtered by the viewers as I thought that it was a fantastic film about loss and failure to accept that loss.However "horror" cliché titles and posters of grubby white hands grasping from the ether possibly gave some viewers the wrong idea of what to expect.It should be noted that the director does use these clichés in shots during the film, most notably the swinging light outside the barn.Some of the main failings of this movie are in its beginnings. Both actors and director seem to struggle with a direction-less script and it is only when Frank actually meets Helen for the first time that some semblance of action takes over and following this the film moves on at a reasonable pace given the subject matter.Acting is also good with Haas's Frank becoming more erratic by the moment until the full realisation of what he is going through comes to the fore, in a poignant and sad ending, which is beautifully scored and well directed.Other cast members are equally good and the question is left that there may have been a ghostly element to the whole affair as well, which other films have laid on rather thick. Here it is just an afterthought.Minor discrepancies I felt were impacting on the film are explained in the finale (like why Julie never takes off that goddamn gown and even Frank using the baby monitor like a military style walkie talkie (the range can't be that great) is explained away by his condition.And all the dream sequences are done to good effect - especially if baby in peril things are your cup of tea.

mholt-9 I have to give kudos for some good camera work and shots just didn't feel horror and there were a few little creepies, just not scary at all. The Director should have never mentioned Kubrick's "The Shining" or Lyne's "Jacobs Ladder" for one in comparison to this, in the behind the scenes; Those are Masterpiece films by the way? The sound could have made this much more suspenseful and that was lacking. When actors were constantly looking for each other you hear faint movie sounds. I always look for a positive and the camera work was nice but boring would have served better in an epic type film? I am not certain if this is the very first film the Director has attempted? In any event I would watch this strictly to learn from this.