30 Second Bottom Line: Young lovers who make a living as scam artists try to play a player, only to get in over their heads. The question is, once in the deep water, can they get out?
Story Line: Paul (Carmine Giovinazzo) saves Georgia (Monet Mazur) from a man who thinks that no means yes to his sexual advances. When they threaten to use his cell phone to call the police, he offers money to not have to deal with a rape charge. This gives the couple, who just met each other, the idea to use this set up as a scam. Before long they try it on Marshall (Vincent Ventresca) who figures out what they are doing and takes them to his office at gunpoint. Marshall wants to build a shopping mall, which the city council opposes; he decides to use Paul and Georgia as a team to either blackmail or unduly influence these council members.
Paul and Georgia quickly move from being new acquaintances into a passionate romance. As they shift from small time crimes to bigger ones, Paul is enjoying his new found "status" of being a made man who drives a Mercedes, while Georgia sees that they are headed for big trouble. They just don't know how much and when.
Tell Me More About It: When I read the information about the movie, which was prepared by the studio, I was looking forward to seeing the film. It's a solid story and with the proper execution, it could be quite exciting. Well, a lot of things kept that from happening and I'll name just a few.
First the acting is laughable at points. Paul and Georgia have the mentality of the young adults in Bully, but you are always aware they are acting. They just never make you feel like you are in the story. That said, Mazur is okay but Giovinazzo either can't act, was miscast, misdirected or missed something. Even though they have a number of sexual scenes, no passion is ever generated.
Events in the film often do not make sense, even if one is supposed to be the brightest bulb in the room. If you have a little money, do you spend it all on renting two sports cars for two people going to the same place and not have $8 to feed yourself at a hot dog stand? While driving the cars and once when on a motorcycle, they are riding in full daylight and in the next scene, it's pitch black outside. In a grocery store, Georgia is shopping and the clerk not only does not scan the items, she never picks them up to read the price nor does she put the items in a bag. A scene dealing with incest is totally unbelievable. When Georgia begins to make her transformation, she goes from dressing like a prostitute to wearing a potato sack dress with ugly flowers. I could give lots more examples but I won't. It's probably more painful for me to write than you to read so I'll save both of us a headache. Too many things that were trying to feel real just came off as phony.
One gets the feeling that the people who made this film are indeed movie lovers and have seen many films. Then they went to director/screenwriter school and made a picture by the numbers rather than from the heart.
Some movies, (e.g. Get Carter) are not previewed by critics before their release; the studios keep them from us. If I owned a studio and thought that my film would get across the board negative reviews, why spread the bad word on the day the film is released? That is bad business. I am going out on a limb here but I'd be surprised if any critic, other than a quote whore or one who does not exist (made up critic), gives this 3 or more stars.
So much of what is wrong with this film seems to be ego, that of the producer, director and studio. Now I'm not saying they are bad people, just that they have an inflated view of their product. I appreciate their effort and expect on their next outing, we'll like what we see quite a bit better.
R (violence, including some gruesome images and language)
DVD