Henry’s Crime
After living in Buffalo the past four years, I was intrigued to see how director Malcolm Venville (44 Inch Chest) would capture the disparate lifestyle and rundown city with his latest feature Henry’s Crime. Starring Keanu Reeves, James Caan and Vera Farmiga in script from Sacha Gervasi (Anvil), he tells the story of a tollbooth worker who goes to jail for a robbery he was mistakenly involved with. After getting out of prison, he plans to do the crime he did the time for.
Venville attempts to balance comedy and drama with very little success. Keanu Reeves simply can’t pull off a dramatic performance. It’s impossible to buy his relationship with Farmiga. His lifeless demeanor matches the dry tone of the film. There is absolutely no style to be found here. What could have been the most interesting aspect, the actual “heist,” is done in an inert manner with little excitement. The movie lumbers along at a safe pace, never hitting any high or low points resulting in numb, futile affair. [4/10]
Last Night
With Massy Tadjedin’s directorial debut she brings together a promising cast of Sam Worthington, Keira Knightley, Eva Mendes, and Guillaume Canet. Told over 36 hours, our couple (Knightley & Worthington) separately deal with temptation and infidelity. Worthington turns in his best dramatic performance to date as there are no epic battle sequences to play out. As he travels to Philadelphia with his mesmerizing colleague Eva Mendes, Knightley is home in NYC and encounters an old flame.
The sexual tension between the two increasingly unfaithful couples builds and builds in a gradually engaging manner. Tadjedin excels in capturing realistic impulses, even though their decisions may be stupid. Composer Clint Mansell also takes a break from high-concept Darren Aronofsky and Duncan Jones flicks with a gorgeous piano-centric score. Thankfully Tadjedin doesn’t take the easy romantic comedy route, instead injecting a natural dose of drama while exploring attraction and its consequences. [8/10]
Repeaters
Did you ever wonder why Bill Murray didn’t rape, murder and force people to eat poop in Groundhog Day? All those answers and more are satisfied in Carl Bessai‘s Repeaters, written by Arne Olsen (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, All Dogs Go To Heaven 2). In the realistic (i.e. sadistic) tale three rehab patients get electrocuted one night and wake up to the same day over and over again.
Seeing Dustin Milligan pull off lead heroic after his hilarious turn as mentally insufficient pool cleaner in Mike Judge’s Extract is interesting to say the least. He manages to do a solid job next to Amanda Crew, who I admired in Sex Drive. The duo have to fight off the evil repeater, Mike Weeks (Richard de Klerk). Bessai continuously gets more ridiculous and it works for the most part. The flawed characters each attempt some sort of redemption during this repeat cycle and I wish more thought was given to this aspect, rather than the amped up violence. It’s low-budget shows, but the premise is captivating enough to keep interest. [6/10]