"Beach House" is a crisply written, low-budget film that tells a yarn about a young writer's imagination, as she prepares a novel. Emma is a college student spending time in a remote beach house with her parents who are visited by a mysterious stranger. The man named Paul is an old flame of her mother. The characters' interactions form the basis for shaping Emma's novel.

One clue to the filmmaker's idea for the film comes from the detail of Emma reading Theodor Fontaine's novel "Effi Briest." The novel has a loose connection with the story of "Beach House" with the lurid romance and the bohemian side of Berlin, which Emma plans to visit.

One problem with the film is the lack of clarity between what is occurring between Emma and Paul in their nocturnal visits and what proportion of the narrative is from Emma's imagination. How much of Paul's visitations is real, and how much is taking place in the mind of Emma the writer?

The acting was good in the small cast, especially the chemistry between the demure Emma and the wise-cracking, jovial, and lusty photographer Paul. With the strange circumstances of the fate of Paul as depicted in the film, Emma has to be wondering what might be the real-life consequences if she ever publishes her novel.

Clasic thriller with privileged class: like 18th century English novels this story is of an upper class educated white girl. She wants to write but has has no experiences to write about. Then her mother's old friend comes to their beach house on the shores of Long Island in the Hamptons. He is a photographer of violence with an artistic take on it. Willa Fitzgerald is the lovely daughter who tells her mother he's dangerous; her mother disregards this and leaves the daughter alone with him. You cannot guess the rest. This film is great on every level. Orlagh Cassidy plays the mother. Hammon and Bennett play the stepfather and old friend. My only criticism is the murky night shots on the beach. I love English novels where upper class women get in and out of trouble; this is like that.

This movie moves incredibly slow. If you need action or thrills you won't be happy. However there is some good acting, a decent setting, and a pretty young actress on the beach. No spoilers here but if you are like me you are going to spend the whole film asking "why would a middle aged women with a family invite a former fling who she has not seen in many years to drop in and live with them for a few days?" I guess I'm old fashioned, but it seems like her current man would object. Anyway, good acting made the film a decent watch.