Rose Red, like a number of the movies in my rewatch queue, has its flaws. I love it despite of those sometimes. However, as much as I love the ensemble cast, there are certain characters I just don’t like. Annie is chief among them.
The autistic savant, Annie, who is the seeming catalyst for the waking of Rose Red hits me like a ton of bricks most of the time. Even more so the speech where her sister says that the most important thing about her is that Annie responds to love with love. It is almost as if the character is written in denial of basic humanity and thus needs someone, from outside, to tell everyone they are really a human being. -sigh- It sometimes feels as though it physically hurts watching those parts.
That is really my primary gripe about Rose Red. I love the movie. Absolutely adore it. But that is a hurtful flaw, one that could put a movie to beggary these days to quote Professor Miller, another character I find somewhat insufferable, but I think he was supposed to be taken that way so I don’t consider it a flaw of the movie that I sort of hate him.
Another thing I don’t particularly like is the ending. The future is coming in to destroy the past; however, we are left wondering if what is there will die with the house. Suppose those condominiums being put up have similar sort of roach motel qualities, you can leave any time you like except you can’t.
All together though, I enjoy Rose Red and if I need a movie to watch while I do something else, that’s definitely one of those I enjoy immensely.