Directed by:
Nick Guthe
Starring:
Nikki Reed …. Mini
Alec Baldwin …. Martin
Carrie-Anne Moss …. Diane
Jeff Goldblum …. Mike Rudell
Luke Wilson …. Garson
Bold Films presents Mini’s First Time. Written and Directed by Nick Guthe. Running time: 91 minutes. Rated R (strong sexual content, language, drug use and a scene of violence). Released on DVD: October 24, 2006. Available at Amazon.com
Mini’s First Time is the type of movie you’d catch playing late at night on cable and stick with it because there’s nothing better playing. That or you missed the first half hour of what you really wanted to watch, so you picked this one instead due to poor timing. The premise is intriguing, the cast certainly sticks out as a strong reason to check it out, and on top of that you might just be looking for something different. This film seems to be right up your alley… until you actually start watching it.
It’s the type of movie that you’ll watch and enjoy but by the next morning you’ll forget most of the plot (and probably the name too) when trying to think back to what you were watching. As that’s exactly what happened to me when sitting down to write this review. It has no lasting impact, the story and structure don’t have anything we’ve never seen before. The simplest way to describe it would be to combine Lolita, Basic Instinct, Heathers and all the other countless films to come after them that were in the same vein – only without any of the deeper messages or cinematic impact. So I guess it’s not like those films at all really, except at face value.
Mini is a girl with a fascination for, as the title implies, “first times.” Now they’re not the types of things you may think a teenage girl would have on a list of things to do, no first date, or first kiss, she goes for the more risky types of first times. Like her first day as a high class call girl. When her first real job involves her step father, that’s when things get interesting. The two begin to form a comical, if off putting, relationship and plot to drive their wife/mother to the brink of insanity in order to commit her to a mental asylum. Making it so she can’t divorce him and take him for half he’s worth. When things escalate out of their control and risks get higher (like a nosey neighbor and a detective who always seems to have “just a few more questions”), the two start to wonder just how much they trust one another afterall.
The movie has a hard time making its characters sympathetic. Dark comedies always have the hard task of needing the leads to be cruel and corrupt, but with some type of redeeming factor that we, the viewers, hold on to as the sole reason for wanting them to get away with what they did. Mini’s First Time doesn’t have those qualities. Instead we have horrible characters who deserve every last thing that happens to them and then still feel it wasn’t enough.
Acting is perhaps the films strongest suit, with Jeff Goldblum, Carrie-Anne Moss, Luke Wilson and the always enjoyable Alec Baldwin, the film is packed with years of experienced and certainly likeable talents. But the biggest disappointment is Nikki Reed, who was able to wow all the critics with her performance (and writing) in 2003’s Thirteen. Yet here she’s asked to play a role that shouldn’t be too much of a detraction from her previous film role, but isn’t able to hold the film on her own. And as the lead character that is a problem.
She delivers her lines flat and without any passion, and each one is uttered in the same empty tone. The young actress just can’t pull off the “femme fetal” character required here. Instead reading the words off the page like a kid doing line readings for a high school play. And with so many talented veterans around her, it’s an impediment to what could have been a better film with a lead more capable of expressing herself.
Direction style is probably the best thing to take from the movie. First time director Nick Guthe clearly knows how to make the best of what he has to work with, and photographs his surroundings to get the most value out of them as possible while also giving the film a much larger scope. His ability to photograph the luxurious house these characters inhabit while constantly making it feel fresh and inviting shows that he’s a talent to keep an eye on.
So if you find yourself channel surfing one night and are in to small films with admirable qualities, and interesting premises packed with noteworthy supporting acting, Mini’s First Time could be a fun watch. But if that film you really wanted to see is just about to begin, you’d probably be better off watching that instead.
Video:
(Presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen)
The film looks exceptional, colors are rich with no banding in gradients and surprisingly rich detail and contrast from start to finish. HBO Video did a wonderful job with the DVD release and it has hardly any problems worth noting. If there’s one issue to be had with the DVD presentation is that there’s a moderate amount of noise in the picture from time to time.
Audio:
(English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
It’s a 2.0 track, what do you expect? The actors dialogue is clearly audible with no noticeable digital problems. The film, since it’s a 2.0 track, obviously stays in the front channels. Yet, surprisingly, makes pretty good use of them..
Extras:
Feature Length Commentary – Writer/Director Nick Guthe sits down to talk about how he got the ball rolling on this, his first film. At the start he mentions that he planned to use the time to tell aspiring filmmakers or writers just what to expect when it comes to making their projects. While Guthe does start out with that in mind, the commentary quickly becomes one of those “oh, this was a fun day of filming” tracks that hardly do any indepth discussion with the handful of minutes that they have to speak during. He does share many useful bits of information on the filmmaking process, they’re just sadly few and far between.
