Hypnotherapist Sarah Hathaway (played by Anne Archer) has been obsessed with finding her son ever since she drove him out of the house ten years ago. She believes she has a lead when she finds a painting in a book showcasing an art show in St. Petersburg, Russia. The artist who calls himself Paul Bergamo paints irises exactly like the ones her son painted years before. Sarah travels to Russia and soon discovers that tracking her son down a nearly impossible task as the language barrier proves to be the least of her troubles. Everywhere she goes is a dead end but Sarah suspects there is something even stranger than she could imagine going on behind it all.

When I saw that The Iris Effect begins like a Lifetime Original Movie with foul language, I can honestly say that my heart sank. Suddenly, Anne Archer’s character goes to Russia and the film changes completely. There is only one credited cinematographer (Irek Hartowicz) but there’s no way that the beginning of the film (shot in L.A.) was done by the same person. St. Petersburg is lovingly and meticulously filmed by someone with incredible talent. Unfortunately, the talent ends there as a trite dialogue and a bland script. At least the plot is strange enough to grab one’s attention at first. The potential for an interesting and frightening conspiracy turns out to be too restrained and uninvolving.

None of the cast is truly terrible but then again none of them really shine either thanks to the anemic script. Anne Archer (Fatal Attraction) is here and seems generally concerned for the well-being of her estranged son. Agnes Bruckner (Venom) and Mia Kirshner (The Crow: City Of Angels) are sure pretty to look at but what are their characters supposed to be doing exactly? There’s a blurry love scene between Archer and Gregory Hlady, who plays Sarah’s love interest, Ivan, that nearly reveals the film’s possible 60 year old demographic.

One of the truly mysterious aspects of The Iris Effect is trying to figure out who in the hell the film might appeal to. The plot isn’t particularly intriguing and the story is quite tame without anything very sexy or shocking going on. Stark and sumptuous photography and some clever moments don’t make a great movie yet something kept me interested here. I like Sarah’s obsessive nature and the constantly revolving mystery which would have fared better if it hadn’t been solved at all. Wait, was it solved? Aye! The Russian locations are the real star of The Iris Effect but dang it, Anne Archer gets the best line in the movie: "Fuck your nice day."