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 I want to
start with a disclaimer before we get into things. "Sympathy" is not
going to be for all audiences. It is a very low budget movie, and it
shows. If you're looking for a glossy Hollywood thriller, with cookie
cutter characters, and a nauseatingly happy ending, you're going to want
to put this one back on the shelf. If your trousers become a little
shorter at the thought of discovering an unnoticed masterpiece amongst
the plethora of blah, you might want to pay attention.
"Sympathy," in it's entirety, takes place in one hotel room. After a
bank robbery that we're not witnessed to, Trip (played by Steven
Pritchard) has taken Sara (played by Marina Shtelen) hostage. Trip cuffs
Sara to the bed while he maps out a path to
Canada, where he intends to catch a plane. After a quick trip
out, trip returns to an unexpected visitor, and so the insanity begins.
I have to say, even though it's fairly obvious that the film was made on
a near nonexistent budget, I enjoyed the look that they accomplished.
Sure, it looks cheap, but it looks grainy, and it manages to feel like
the exploitation flicks that it's partially paying homage to.
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If you had asked me about the
acting fifteen minutes into the movie, I would have told you
that it was just so-so. As the movie progresses, you get a
sense for what they're aiming for, and the acting makes
sense, and by the end, I was actually pretty impressed. For
a cast and crew of virtual unknowns, it's quite an
achievement. Particularly well in her role, was Marina
Stelen as Sara. At first she's annoying, then the character
grows on you, and by the end, you're completely sucked in by
her performance. |
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The camera work is nothing short of amazing.
Even though they're limited to one hole-in-the-wall hotel room, they
manage to capture the madness from every conceivable angle, and more.
One particularly appealing technique on display here is the split
screen, made famous by the television series 24, only instead of showing
you what two separate people are doing at the same time, we're treated
with multiple angles of the same scene. Multiple angles of struggling,
squirming, and bleeding. It's something that wasn't necessary to advance
the story, but serves extremely well at leaving a lasting impression.
"Sympathy" is the perfect blend of a Hitchcockian thriller, and a
straight up exploitation film. It does a perfect job at keeping you
guessing, while serving up a few moments of pure splatter. If this is
what first time director Andrew Moorman was going for, he's definitely
hit his mark. Sympathy, as you can tell by the title of this review, is
a film from 2007, but it didn't get picked up for distribution until
this year. Thankfully, Vicious Circle, and Breaking Glass Pictures took
a chance on this one, otherwise it might have never seen the light of
day.
My hope is that somebody
from some big name studio will see Sympathy, and give Moorman a budget.
I think, if given the proper resources, he has the potential to become a
next generation's master of horror.
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