The Mill is about Joe Stevens, an employee in a Mallard. He works hard to make the two ends meet and because of the same isn’t able to dedicate much time to his family. His wife is pregnant and that’s happy news for the family as they weren’t able to conceive earlier.
One day, he finds himself in a prison with no roof. This was confusing as he didn’t have any enemies or so and the man wasn’t able to figure out why and how he ended up in that place. Upon inquiring more about the same from his neighbor with whom he communicated through a vent, he found out that they have to complete the daily tasks to live.
The task allotted to them was to make 50 or 370 rotations of the mill. This was supposed to make them a better worker. The concept is vague and what is understandable is the way the company was torturing their employees.
I soon started to lose focus as the film didn’t make any sense to me. It was sad to watch Joe suffer and survive on the bare minimum. His neighbor, however, sounded interesting as that man knew a lot. From the beginning, the viewers will be able to understand that he’s not a simple layer but is hiding many things. When the time of revelation came, I wasn’t impressed as he was my hope of bringing a twist to the already boring story.
Once the truth was brought forward, I began to like the concept of the film but, the plot seems to be too toxic to even be fiction. I can not imagine a world where people are forced into cages and made to work like donkeys. Instead of unique, it was scary and I wish that things in the future don’t turn out like this in the corporate world.
This 105-minute movie isn’t worth your time and attention, and the reason behind saying so is that after 30 or 40 minutes, we lose interest due to the repetition. In the beginning, they cleared how the prisoners have to work to avoid termination. What was the point of showing the same things? What was new with each passing day was increased goals and introduction to new rules.
How long can the audience watch the same thing, my recommended approach if you want to watch The Mill is to skip the middle portion. Watching the first and last thirty minutes is sufficient to understand the plot of the film.
Lil Rel Howery as Joe did a spectacular job, alas his hard work didn’t prove to be useful owing to the poor presentation of the plot. If more secrecy, action, and a thrilling approach were used, it could have proved to be an acceptable movie.
There are just three to four sets used and we have seen films that despite having limited sets have presented a fabulous title. The Mill didn’t work for me, and it might not be for the other viewers as well. Apart from presenting interestingly, cutting short the time duration would’ve also proved to be useful.
The Mill is a psychological thriller, but it doesn’t tick all the boxes to be included in this genre. Instead of this, I’d like to term it as a bad dream that one will forget as soon as one completes the title.
Final Score – [4.5/10]
Reviewed by - Riya Singh
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Publisher at Midgard Times