Flick Picks 10: Restraint

These 3 are pretty damn good.

Hello there, Streakers! Boog here, with the tenth edition of Flick Picks. To continue Last week's trend, I went with a thriller called
Restraint. That trailer is Redband, so a SFW youtube trailer can be found here. First, this film is Austrailian, so there are accents. Second, I watched this film for the first time for this review. I am quite happily surprised to tell you that I enjoyed it. A lot. Low budget, but that's to be expected from anywhere that can't regularly shell out $100 million for a film, but definitely a good film, in some areas almost hitting great. And now for the obligitory SPOILERS! First, let go into the visual style of the film, as that's what really got me first. I love the color palette of this film, very dark, very noir. Lots of great shots involving lightplay(yes, I think I just invented a word for a review) with dust and trees, and extremely well shot. All of the shots involving the house most of the film is set in really adds a sense of closeness and isolation.

That's a dead woman in the center picture. Yeah.

The house itself is great as well, creepy on Art Deco. The few other locations this film has are only really touched upon, and none of it stands up to the house anyway. Overall, the visual atmosphere of the film is very much like an old 40s noir flick, with a current sensibility. On the visual effect side, there is no CG, and very little blood, really only two scenes with it. Oh, there is a rather good edit effect of a cockatiel being shot with a shotgun close range. The camera angles are close shots, so we don't see any blood, but the end effect comes off very realistically anyway. The Music is this film is great as well, as, for the most part, it isn't there. Now, I'm not saying the music is bad. Far from it, when it's there, it amps the action scenes very well, and then it slinks off, letting you bask in the visuals until it's called for again, with one great exception involving a record of New Orleans style Jazz, which again harkens to some of the great noir classics of the 30s and 40s, so no arguments from me.

People this pretty shouldn't be allowed to play criminals.

Now I should go into the plot and dialogue. Well, the dialogue in some places seems a little off, none of it seems wrong. I guess it would be better to say that some of it may sound weird being spoken, but none of it sounds like it was written. Two of the character are low-class criminal types, so there are a few f-bombs and such to throw around, but it isn't peppered with them. The third character is a high class kind of guy, so less of an accent, and better diction, so yeah, the dialogue seems natural. The plot of the film is, at it's core, a traditional small-cast thriller set-up. Two criminals on the run find themselves in a house they think is abandoned. When they find the homeowner, he becomes a hostage while they wait for the authorities to dial down their search for them. The hostage gives them a proposition for $40,000, or, enough for them to flee to a foreign country, as per their plan. Then it starts going into its own twists on the story. The homeowner, Andy, is VERY agoraphobic, so he has shut himself inside his house, alone, except for a housekeeper who only comes once a week. He had a fiance at some point, but we get one than one explanation of why she disappeared, but, the point of all that is that he lives alone with no one to check on him, basically. The two criminals, Ron and Dale, are running away because Ron was in debt to a club owner that Dale stripped for. Ron decided he loved Dale, Dale decided she loved Ron, so Ron killed the club owner, and a bouncer, grabbed Dale, and ran off. Along the way Ron kills a gas station attendant for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then they find Andy's house, and the plot really gets going. You see, Andy's a nice guy, Dale's a little misguided, but generally innocent, as she has yet to actually commit a crime other than run off with Ron, and Ron, well, he's an assh*le. A Huge One.

Umm... yeah, there's a reason he's sitting that way.

The dude's so dickish he verbally abuses Andy at every opportunity, and won't do anything with out his shotgun. I hated his character from the get go, which was the point of the character, so well acted, well written. I generally liked Andy as a character, I felt bad for him throughout the film, he came off as genuinely caring about Dale's welfare, he fought well verbally and physically with Ron when the time came to do so, so again, well written, well acted. Dale as a character I loved. The noir archetype of the 'Hooker with a Heart of Gold' was perfect for this character, the modern sensibility shining through with her initial harsh view of herself and the world, that does change through the caring that Andy show her. The plot gets it's first turn into fun territory when Andy reveals he has a special trust fund set up from his now deceased mother. A special bank account, topped off at $20K, and refilled overnight when empty. This gives the criminals a chance to make $40K for the two days they want to wait for the search to cool off. Problem is, of course, Andy can't do it, due to his condition. However, he believes Dale can, with a blond dye job, pose as his fiance, who, as she's been gone for six months now, and was only in the bank maybe three times, Dale wouldn't be suspicious walking in there claiming to be her. Wrinkles ensue as Dale discovers she likes the feeling that even pretending to be rich gives her, and Ron starts to slip into total madness. And that's all I'm gonna give you, you have to go see it yourself. Nyah.

You tell anyone you saw me in my skivees, I end you.

She really is the high point of the movie.

The principal actors here are all very good in their roles. Ron is played by Travis Fimmel, who is generally known to the outside world as a former Calvin Klein and underwear model, although some of you might have seen him in 2010's The Experiment, with Adrien Brody and Forrest Whittaker. Dale is played by Teresa Palmer, who has had quite a bit of screen time in the States, appearing in Wolf Creek, Grudge 2, Bedtime Stories, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, I Am Number Four, Take Me Home Tonight, and the yet to be released Mad Max: Fury Road.
Seeing this film, I can see why. She gives a nuanced turn here, playing at parts naive, maybe even dumb, to innocent and conflicted. Her portrayal is even mostly sad, as you definitely get a sense that her world experience has equated sex, and sex acts, as just being part of everyday life, and that any attention shown her, especially attention tied to the use of power, is a kind of love. It really is heartbreaking. I can't wait to see more from her. Andy, is played by Stephen Moyer, whom every female reader definitely knows as Bill Compton from HBO's True Blood TV series. I haven't seen the show myself, but I generally get a vibe that Moyer gets to play the right kind of sexy vampire that Twilight vamps could only hope to be. I'm just happy he has regular work, because other than the HBO series, his credits include SIX FAILED TV series (13 episodes, at the most), a few low budget film never released here that I find, and a 1999 version of Prince Valiant, where he played the title character. He's great in this movie, and if I ever watch True Blood, I'm sure I will be in line to say he's great in that. But it sure took him a while to get there. Overall, I really liked this movie, I would recommend this to fans of thrillers, noir films, generally anybody who likes a good tension flick. Now, I think I'll change genres again, next time do a sport movie...