Despite another "review" here (left by the director) this film has been shown on Cinemax. Get more information on this by searching Cinemax plus the film title.
Writer-director-producer Alan Mulligan (making his first feature) promises 'a dark spiral of deceit, revenge and murder', but it's not really that. A Dublin banker with a sick mother perpetrates an implausible Robin Hood/revenge cyber-crime against his employer and quits his job. A colleague tries to blackmail him and he takes her prisoner. That's the whole plot, an interesting idea, but rather slight for a feature. I have never seen less convincing restraints on any prisoner, nor less effort made to escape them (i.e. None at all) but perhaps she doesn't want to. A lot of mutual staring goes on, which may be intended to suggest sexual tension.
The director describes his film as deliberate and slow-paced and that is spot on. There's not a whole lot of dialogue, but endless lingering shots, often of actors' faces showing nothing (or nothing I was able to identify). Every aspect of the situation is laced through with dramatic possibilities, but almost no passion is shown. The lead actor, on screen for almost all the film, shows us an unvarying, slightly plaintive, but almost blank expression. A film with so little dialogue needed better face-actors than these. The biggest problem was that I couldn't care about anyone. Their circumstances are dire enough, but this deadpan acting and these undeveloped personalities never began to engage my sympathy.
The direction is too slow. This clearly intelligent film-maker has ideas and good intentions, but isn't quite as clever as he thinks he is in realising them. There's promise here though, and I hope he gets another shot and learns from this. He's helped by some excellent cinematography. The framing of shots is the film's best feature. The script is fine, there's just not enough of it. The music fits well and the low budget never causes a problem.
I wouldn't suggest anyone pays to watch this, but it's far from awful and not over-long at less than 90 minutes. If it comes on TV, give it a shot. I've never been a big fan of the slow and subtle unless it's really really well-done. This isn't, but others may well enjoy/appreciate it more than I did.
Writer-director-producer Alan Mulligan (making his first feature) promises 'a dark spiral of deceit, revenge and murder', but it's not really that. A Dublin banker with a sick mother perpetrates an implausible Robin Hood/revenge cyber-crime against his employer and quits his job. A colleague tries to blackmail him and he takes her prisoner. That's the whole plot, an interesting idea, but rather slight for a feature. I have never seen less convincing restraints on any prisoner, nor less effort made to escape them (i.e. None at all) but perhaps she doesn't want to. A lot of mutual staring goes on, which may be intended to suggest sexual tension.
The director describes his film as deliberate and slow-paced and that is spot on. There's not a whole lot of dialogue, but endless lingering shots, often of actors' faces showing nothing (or nothing I was able to identify). Every aspect of the situation is laced through with dramatic possibilities, but almost no passion is shown. The lead actor, on screen for almost all the film, shows us an unvarying, slightly plaintive, but almost blank expression. A film with so little dialogue needed better face-actors than these. The biggest problem was that I couldn't care about anyone. Their circumstances are dire enough, but this deadpan acting and these undeveloped personalities never began to engage my sympathy.
The direction is too slow. This clearly intelligent film-maker has ideas and good intentions, but isn't quite as clever as he thinks he is in realising them. There's promise here though, and I hope he gets another shot and learns from this. He's helped by some excellent cinematography. The framing of shots is the film's best feature. The script is fine, there's just not enough of it. The music fits well and the low budget never causes a problem.
I wouldn't suggest anyone pays to watch this, but it's far from awful and not over-long at less than 90 minutes. If it comes on TV, give it a shot. I've never been a big fan of the slow and subtle unless it's really really well-done. This isn't, but others may well enjoy/appreciate it more than I did.