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| Mark R. Leeper... |
 Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 12:55 am |
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FISSURE
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Paul Grunning was a good cop broken by
a professional case that brought him personal
tragedy. While trying to put is life back together
he is sent to an odd house only to find reality
breaking down on him. Anything outside his sight
may not be there when he looks again from another
angle. First-time director Russ Pond directs a
script by first-time writer Nicholas Turner and
creates a nice low-budget crime thriller with some
nice science fiction turns. It is the kind of idea
that would have made for a very good "Twilight Zone"
episode, but fleshed out. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4)
or 7/10
There is a lot more happening in FISSURE than meets the eye.
Detective Paul Grunning (played by James MacDonald) has recently
had a personal tragedy in his life. Right now it looks 50-50
whether he will make it back to being a good cop or be a basket
case. He is sent on a simple job, a small domestic disturbance.
When he gets to the house there is a dead man on the floor and this
turns out to be a bigger case than he expected. But at least it is
a kind of case he knows and should know what to do. His biggest
problem: he has fallen into a world where reality seems unstable.
Details of reality keep changing. A room may look one way and if
he walks away and returns, the room is different. It is like his
life has what would be called in film "continuity errors." In
additions voices are heard from other rooms of the house where
people cannot possibly be. And there is someone else in the house
that Grunning and the viewer gets only flashes of. Is the cause
the drugs he is taking to pacify him or is it something deeper?
After all, the dead man is Professor Roger Ulster (Jim Blumetti), a
man who seems to be experimenting with quantum physics. Or is this
all a plot just to keep Grunning from finding the real truth of
what went on? Whatever is going on, Grunning is crumbling under
the pressures of the investigation that defies logic.
One odd touch is the casting of Vietnamese-American Todd Haberkorn
as the Ulster's son. He does not look like either of his parents,
a touch that could easily have been explained by a line of dialog
saying he was adopted, but the line never comes. Jane Willingham
plays Emma Ulster whose memory of her husband's death seems to be
suppressed one moment and returns the next.
FISSURE was released to DVD on August 11, 2009, and is also being
released as a web series. I think it is fine as just a feature
film. Costing a reported one million dollars to make, it does not
have the CGI and big stars of some of the summer competition, but
Nicholas Turner's script is a good one and one that will keep the
viewer guessing. Video production values are high and the film
looks quite good on a minimal budget. It all supports my belief
that the cheapest way to make a really good film is to have really
good writing.
This film will bring back memories of films like MEMENTO, 21 GRAMS,
and some time machine stories, but it is really very different.
Nonetheless, that puts the film in very good company. If a film
can do that, it is probably very good. This one is worth seeing.
After seeing the film with a friend, be prepared for a discussion
of what was really going on and if it all hangs together. (I think
that it doesn't, but I will put that in a spoiler section follow
the review.) I rate FISSURE a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.
Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0948745/>
Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler
In some ways the story could not work this way, at least not
without some explanation. Nobody seems to notice that Grunning had
accurately predicted things that had not happened yet.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper at (no spam) optonline.net
Copyright 2009 Mark R. Leeper |
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