A Few Good Men

When asked what an Indie movie was, an obviously mainstream commercial movie maker responded that it is what happens when new filmmakers try to make something great and fail.

After watching so many movies you start to take away a few things. You begin to appreciate things that you otherwise would take for granted such as the use of silence instead of persistent music, the unhighlighted drama within a movie or little motifs that were added on along the way that makes sense in the end of the movie. This movie had a lot of those things just without the purpose.

A few good men is a story of two individuals who are broken up with by their significant others for unfathomable reasons. Joseph Benjamin’s character’s girlfriend breaks up with him because he is too nice and Kate Henshaw’s boyfriend because she works too hard. Eventually the two who break their relationships end up together and the story takes a whole other direction. Joseph Benjamin’s character is actually in love with his school mate and has been this entire time (even when he was with his girlfriend?). Kate Henshaw’s character on the other hand is strong, independent and in dire need of a man? 

This is not where the confusion starts and it is not where the confusion ends. The movie uses a lot of silence without purpose. There is a lot of things happening that don’t really add to the end purpose which even seeing the movie, I’m still uncertain as to what it is. Is a few good men a romance disguised as a moralistic drama? Or is it a moralistic drama disguised as a romance? Is it even a romance or a moralistic drama at all?

There is no sense of time or continuity in this story because here we are meeting on the stairwell after so many years and then here we are saying sweet nothings over the phone, and all this before the opening credits even come on. Here we are watching a scene and suddenly a character mentions that it has been six months. Pause. When did that happen? For all we know the entire movie could have happened in the span of 10 years and we, the viewers, would be clueless. Dear movie, do like a river and flow. Stop all this patch patch.

This lack of continuity and focus for the story as well as subpar production quality knock the movie down way lower than a few pegs. There must have been good intentions somewhere along the line. Considering the final work, the good intentions probably got lost as way back as the first draft of  the script. The point is considering the calibre of the cast and the potential of the story, it is sad that this is how the movie bottomed out. Any attempt to blame the problems of the movie on a low budget would be almost as sad as the movie “I think he loves me”.

As regards performances, the movie does not light up until Deyemi appears. This is obviously because of his character’s exuberance but also because he pulled it off successfully. The key players in this movie were fluid, however, Oreka Godis was definitely the weakest link. Until Godis can display a depth of expressions, believable expressions, then her acting will continue to have a glass ceiling.

…and of course there was a happily ever after.