It’s been a while since I’ve had a movie to review, so I’ll try and ease back into this. First, a quote from the box. “A Twist so violent it could give you whiplash.” I realize they’re not really expecting it to give you whiplash, but it’s not even that big of a twist. The only way it’s even remotely giving you whiplash is if you’re watching it while driving and at the end of the movie you just feel so horrible about watching the movie that you swerve into a guardrail. How’s that for easing in?
In the movie Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond play FBI agents who are sent into a small town to help in the investigation of a brutal murder on the side of a road. They have three witnesses to the murder: a police officer, a drugged out girl, and a little girl. The little girl, Ryan Simpkins, actually won a best actress award for her work in the movie. So I can’t really knock her work and she does do an awesome job in this movie. That’s two movies where she is my favorite character. She’s awesome as the potty-mouthed little girl in Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach. Ormond in the movie spends most of her time with Simpkins asking her questions about what she saw, while two of the local cops do the same with the druggie girl, and the local captain questions the police officer all while Pullman watches all three interrogations on 3 different TV screens.
The story of the day is told very well, it flows between the three points of view. The one thing that makes it tricky is the lies that each one of them give. The movie shows you what actually happened, but they don’t tell that version to the people doing the questioning. But it’s not done in a way that says “Hey, they are lying here, but we are showing you what actually happened.” Case and point, they show the officer in questioning shoot out the tire of a car driving by, and then cut back to the room where he says “So we pulled the guy over.” Doing it that way doesn’t let you know for sure whether or not he mentioned shooting the tire out. If you just flip flop the two, and start in the room and have the guy say they pulled someone over, and then show him shooting out the tire, then you’ve got a better idea. But maybe it was done that way on purpose to make you think more so you wouldn’t see the elephant in the room.
The druggie girl, Pell James, was riding with her boyfriend to an “interview” and when the drug dealer they were “interviewing” died, they took his stash and made off. So those two are high as a kite as one of the local officers claims. The little girl is on a family vacation with her mother, brother, and step-dad that she doesn’t much care for. The two cops are just out having fun pretending to be the guys from Super Troopers, they do the classic good cop/bad cop routine and just basically screw with everybody. It’s not as funny as Super Troopers even if French Stewart is maniacally humorous.
The cops end up pulling over/blowing out the tire of the family and the druggies. They have their fun with them and before leaving, awesome little girl tells them she saw a van and a blue car with blood all over it. So the cops turn around and check it out, only by the time they get there the van is gone, it passes them while they are driving but they don’t notice it. They find the bloody blue car and turn around and head back to the other two groups, right before they get back, the white van passes by goes over a hill, turns around and comes flying back and smashes the family station wagon that is having its wheel changed. This knocks it off the jack killing the step dad and pushes the car back into the druggie’s car where the druggie boyfriend is standing right in between the two cars. So we’ve knocked those two out of the movie. The cops get back and try to get into the van, the one is trying to break through the windshield and someone from the back shoots his hand. Two things, you never see that person even after the cop falls into the van. Secondly, the shot goes through someone else’s head first. I’m not saying you can’t shoot someone in the hand by going through someone’s head, but the exit wound of the head is not going to be bigger than the exit wound of the hand. The head loses most of its lower jaw, another thing that isn’t going to happen because the bullet would be going too fast, and the hand has just a whole. This is surprising, because they do a good job on the bullet wound to the head later. Did I mention this is a very gory, bloody movie?
After this whole story is told another call comes in where three more bodies were found in an inn by the town. And while Ormond goes to investigate that with two of the local cops, Pullman stays behind to interrogate some more. This is when it comes out that Pullman and Ormond aren’t FBI agents and are actually the killers. If done right, that could be a big shock, but it’s done so blatantly it’s ridiculous. Pullman is just constantly uncomfortable and always seems like he has no idea what is going on or what to say which makes it plainly obvious he’s not FBI. Then to make it even more obvious, at one point he refers to Ormond as “agent”. Only the way he says it is like, “I want everyone to know we’re not really FBI agents so I’m going to say this as sarcastically as possible.” He might as well have thrown in the air quotes.
All that being as it is, the movie is growing on me. The story is told well, it’s well acted, it’s violent and bloody and really could be worse I guess.
Surveillance is presented in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and 5.1 and 2.0 Sound.
In the commentary they keep raving about the scenery. It’s freaking Canada, it all looks the same. It’s all a big flat rock with fields. It’s not as impressive as you think. Besides that, the movie does look fine, it’s a little grainy but it works with the gritty feel of the movie so I like it. The lighting is done well and adds a layer to the movie with different feels in different rooms.
Surveillance: The Watched are Watching – a making of feature. It’s mildly entertaining although I wish they didn’t beat the “Regina, the place that rhymes with fun” bit to death. The one actor didn’t even know there was a place called Regina.
HDNet: A look at Surveillance – a made for TV promo show basically. Nothing fancy.
Deleted Scenes/Alternate Ending – The one deleted scene is almost vomit worthy with no sound, it’s just Pullman and Ormond rubbing each other with white goo. It’s almost like a porno on drugs with no nudity. The alternate ending is the ending that most movies of this sort would have. Whereas the ending the movie uses caused the director’s father to call her in the middle of the night and ask what the hell was wrong with her.
Commentary with the Director, and two of the actors (Mac Miller and Charlie Newmark) – Here’s a taste, “Oh my god this scenery is so beautiful, oh my god it was so cold, oh my god it was so windy, oh my god Regina rhymes with vagina.” Repeat over the course of the movie.
Great story, well written and interesting. Execution of the story is where it falls flat. It is definitely a violent movie and a bit of a thinker. You could make a lot worse of a movie, this one is not that bad.
Magnolia Home Entertainment presents Surveillance. Directed by Jennifer Lynch. Starring Bill Pullman, Julia Ormond, Pell James, and Ryan Simpkins. Written by Jennifer Lynch and Kent Harper. Running time: 97 minutes. Rated R. Released on DVD: August 18, 2009. Available at Amazon.com.
