FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

Sebastian is a young handyman trying to make a living by fixing up the roof of a seemingly wealthy man’s house. He needs the money to help provide for his parents and siblings who are barely scraping by. When the home owner suddenly dies, he’s left with no one to pay him for the work he’s done so far. What he does have, however, is a letter addressed to the owner. After overhearing a conversation, he believes the contents of this secret envelope are the key to earning a very large sum of money. Sebastian blindly follows the directions given to him and suddenly finds himself in an inescapable underworld where gambling is the game and human beings are the playing pieces.

The concept is strong and the game itself has great potential to be incredibly intense, but the film never really hooked me the way I thought it would. Various crime bosses get together to make some desperate soul compete in their sick game. Each man is given a gun. They stand around in a circle and point the gun at the back of the head of the person in front of them. They all look up at a light. Once that light goes on, the game goes on. The first time around, the suspense is chilling. The referee shouts the rules while looking equally nervous and authoritarian. Bodies hit the floor and you’re thinking this could get pretty good. Then after seeing the same thing happen a few times, the predictability increases and you slide to the back of your seat.

I wish they would have switched it up a little bit and thought of a few different life-threatening games for them to play. Russian roulette would be the first round in a series of nail-biting contests. I also wish the set-up was different. It would have been nice to have followed a couple people to the scene of the games. It also would have been nice to get to them a little faster. Granted, if you don’t know what the movie is about, it would be a greater shock once you see what Sebastian’s gotten himself into. However, most people will have been drawn in by the concept of the gruesome game and don’t want to sit through a slow-moving first act that unfortunately does nothing to build up the suspense or mystery of what’s to come later down the line.

So, the movie could have been more effective (as could the cinematography), but it’s still not bad to watch. It’s highly possible that I’ve just become jaded and desensitized towards violence like this in the movies. But more likely, I think it’s that I could easily see the path the film was taking. The acting is pretty solid, but that doesn’t make up for the sparse story. Give it shot if you want, but the odds are it won’t hit.

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