Dir. David Ren,USA, 2011, 80 mins, English
Cast. Gary Stretch, Sasha Grey, Jason Yee, Dominique Swain, Ron Yuan, Samantha Streets
Review by Michelle Moore
For those who enjoyed watching movies like Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City or Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, the new action thriller The Girl from the Naked Eye will be a film worth paying attention to.
It all revolves around a young (under 18 years old) girl called Sandy (Streets), who is an escort in a seedy strip club called The Naked Eye and Jake (Yee), a driver for the same club. When the two are paired together, they begin to form an odd relationship, where a friendship grows and later turns into a romance.
When Sandy is found murdered, Jake goes on a manhunt to find out who killed her, and will not rest until he finds the truth, even if that means hunting down all her previous “clients” and either beating or threatening the living daylights out of them.
Right from the start there is a comic strip element attached to the movie, which quickly incorporates some comical elements, some seriousness, gunfire, sex and nudity (afterall it does include a strip club) and a lot of martial arts fights. As these elements play out in the movie, there is an overall murder mystery style taking hold; even so far as to refer to Nancy Drew at one point mid movie.
When it comes to the martial arts fight scenes, although the actors are able to display a sense of agility, they do appear too planned and far too outlandish; at one point Jake tussles with at least four opponents and comes out victorious.
The film is considerably fast-paced and well cut. However, the fragmented narration has its downsides. The movie flashes back and forth between the initial meeting between Sandy and Jake and the build up to her death, and then to his reaction and seeking justice for her murder. Although this flashing back and forth between the two time scales adds more information to the story, it can be disconcerting at times. Likewise, the constant narration from the lead protagonist is informative, but to be honest it would have been more fulfilling without it, and more action would have been preferable.
The movie does leave you pondering, how far would you go for the one you loved?
- posted on 24/05/2012 00:25:44
