Dir. Stuart Gordon, Canada/USA/UK/Germany, 2007, 85 mins
Cast: Stephen Rea, Mena Suvari
Review by Carol Allen
Although inspired, if that is the word, by a true life incident, this film, whose makers admit they have taken the story “their own way”, often stretches credulity in its jaundiced and grossly unpleasant view of humanity.
The appropriately named Brandy (Suvari), sporting an unflattering hair do which reflects her involvement in Black popular culture, initially bids for our sympathies in her work at an old people's care home - the sort of depressing dump we all pray we're not going to end up in. Off duty though she's heavily into partying and her drug peddling and rather stupid boyfriend Rashid (Russell Hornsby) and, as we soon learn, is a vicious and selfish little monster. Tom (Rea) is one of life's losers. Chucked out of his bedsit by an unbelievably harsh landlord, his attempts at job seeking are rejected by the employment office - the computer says no! - and he finds himself homeless, walking the streets with his few possessions in a supermarket trolley. The two come together when Brandy, driving home high as a kite after a night out, hits Tom with her car. He crashes through her windscreen and is impaled on the broken glass. Oddly no-one appears to notice a speeding car with a body on the bonnet, as Brandy heads for home. Not even the police, who are too busy hassling a hobo (Lionel Mark Smith), who has earlier shown Tom a bit of kindness. Brandy hides the barely conscious Tom, still stuck in the car, in her garage. Despite empty promises to get help, she leaves him there hoping he will die. And when he persists in staying alive and attempting to escape, she plots with Rashid to kill him.
Rea elicits some sympathy in his suffering, as he struggles to stay alive and free himself - though his ability to do this, badly injured as he is, beggars belief. He does however build up a good bit of tension. Suvari is lumbered with such an unbelievably unsympathetic role that her only option is to say the lines and collect the pay cheque. "It's not my fault", she keeps whining. In that case, it must be her agent's for persuading her to do the film. Apart from the aforesaid hobo and the Hispanic teenager, who discovers Tom's predicament and tries but fails to persuade his father to call the police - the family are illegal immigrants - the film exploits its bleak view of the selfish and uncaring nature of contemporary society to the ultimate. This is the equally unreal polar opposite of the unreal feel good movie and the ugly rap soundtrack reflects the ugliness of the film itself.
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