NateManD "the Passion of Darkly Noon" has to be one of the most bleak and emotional films I have seen. It's even more depressing than Philip Ridley's other film, "The Reflecting Skin". Believe it or not, Philip Ridley is not only a writer of plays but of children's books. "The Passion of Darkly Noon" is a beautiful, disturbing and surreal psychological drama in the vein of "Blue Velvet", "Santa Sangre", "Donnie Darko" and "I Stand Alone". Brandon Fraiser gives an amazing and overlooked performance as Darkly Noon; a naive young Christian man who's just escaped a waco like religious cult. He witnessed his parents and other members shot down by police. Darkly is found injured in the woods and stays with Callie (Ashley Judd), who takes care of Darkly till he's better. Ashley Judd's Character is a nature loving feminist beauty. (Check out the close up of her arm pit hair.) Callie start's to fall for Darkly. Her mute boyfriend is played by Viggo Mortenson. Since Darkly has lived a secluded life with not much contact of the outside world, he doesn't know how to deal with his sexual feelings for Callie. Out of guilt he prays for forgiveness and mutilates himself with barb wire. His religious beliefs cause him to slowly loose his sanity and see visions of his dead parents. He feels it's God's mission for him to kill. The film builds up unbearable tension as it goes along. Ashley Judd is amazing with a performance so good, it's as if she's having a real nervous breakdown. Brandon Fraiser gives the best performance of his career. His character is down right scary, especially compared to his usual roles in family films. Their are certain images in this film that are very confusing. One being the giant silver shoe floating in the pond. "The Passion of Darkly Noon" is somewhat of a puzzle and may require a second viewing. Either way it has my highest recommendation.

maatmouse It is rare to chance on the first few films of a Hollywood actor obviously destined for better stuff and this is no exception. This is Brendan Fraser post California/Encino man and pre-Mummy etc in a sexy movie about passions bubbling under the surface. Fraser plays the Darkly Noon of the title who is found by a labourer and taken to his friends, Caly and Clay who reside in the forest. For the first 30 minutes plus of the film, only Caly is present, a beautiful and at times teasing presence in the film from Noon's perspective. Extremely religious Noon has difficulty reconciling Caly and his feelings for her until her lover, Clay returns and, troubled by their love for each other and the teachings of his parents and other strangers in the woods, Noon fights, literally against his rescuers quite spectacularly.

zjlm I really can't understand why people give this film lousy reviews. It is well written, the acting is excellent and overall it is really, really intense. Probably people who only like the other types of films that BF appears in can't handle this one.

toby5634 this movie is actually the worst movie ever made... i know people have told you that "plan nine from outerspace" was the worst movie ever made, come to think of it i think that was the tagline... but "the passion of darkly noon by far blows it away with its awfull acting, terrible story, unexplaned occurances, and it's massive quantities of unimportant crap that is thrown in there to make you think your drunk. the first tiem i saw this i actually was drunk... it was on HBO at 3:30 in the morning and i was laughing my head off because it was soo silly. i tried to blame the s***ty story on my drunkness but when i saw it again, sober, i was sadly mistaken. this movie is crap. i did buy this movie just to show it to people and make them hate brenden frasier. you lose all respect you ever had for him after watching this.