Dakota Skye (2008)
This was recommended to me and sent through as a request for a review, so here we are! My first ever request-movie.
Dakota Skye is the story of a girl, Dakota (Eileen April Boylan), who cannot be lied to. As she describes herself, she has a super power of being able to always see the truth in what people say. Because of this she has a slightly cynical outlook on life and the people in it. She has an older boyfriend, Kevin (J.B.Ghuman Jr.) who she “hates less than everyone else” and she’s happy enough, having gotten used to her power and to the fact that people around her will always lie. When Kevin’s best friend Jonah (Ian Nelson) drives over from New York, Dakota knows there’s something different about him: he never lies.
The idea of the film really interested me, because it’s actually uncanny how many little while lies we tell every day and how often we have no idea that we told them. To Dakota this is how life works, she is so used to people lying that it both doesn’t affect her and really pisses her off. She goes for weeks wishing people would say what they mean so she wouldn’t have to work through double meanings and two-faced lies. Her relationship with her boyfriend and friends is one of patience. She knows that they mean well, they don’t want or even choose to hurt her if they do, and she forgives that and moves on. When Jonah shows up, she has no idea how to deal with him because for the first time ever he isn’t lying to her.
This film reminded me of Keith in a lot of ways. From the way it was shot, to the acting, to the gentle and slow way that the story unraveled. This is a story of someone with unusual powers put into a normal situation. What was good about this film is that it wasn’t ever overdone. Not everything people said was a lie, the lies they did tell were usually small ones that one would say unconsciously around friends or acquaintances and the love triangle that Dakota finds herself in is realistic and sad, and it’s not worked out magically as Hollywood would do it.
The script is also well written (I personally loved the “don’t tell him what I didn’t say” speech but that could just be the romantic in me). And the characters are fleshed out enough to get a general history if not necessarily an in-depth profile. A lot of the issues that Dakota deals with as well are easy to relate to and link to one’s own life (at least for me… I hated taking the SATs when I didn’t even need to in this country and I had no idea what I wanted for my future). One other thing that I loved about this film was that the characters weren’t “good” or “bad”, they were human. They had flaws, they had good moments and bad moments, made as many wrong decisions as right ones… They felt real and because of this were easy to relate to.
I would give this film a 7/10, for an original idea, a beautifully acted and scripted film and for the way it made me think about it after it was over, and wonder, rather than forget it and shelve it into my “seen movies” brain section. I would recommend this film to anyone, but especially young people. If you’ve seen Keith you will love this film (I just found out that Ian Nelson was in that film too, which was kinda cool), and if you like good films with a dash of romance that doesn’t work itself out but requires work to get there, then watch this.
Thanks for the recommendation, Dizzy, hope the review was up to scratch!
