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58%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #16,012
...out of 20,698 movies
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A desperate man with only 48 hours to prevent the delivery of an important package takes a young woman hostage on a cross-country race towards Denver.
--IMDb
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Something original... finally... something original. As I mentioned in my recent review for the wannabe mobster film "The Life I Live", it's rare when I receive a film to review that really does anything for me, because most of them are lacking even the slightest musk of originality. True, the themes and situations in "Different Kinds" have been seen a hundred times before in a hundred or so different ways, but director Eileen Agosta manages to make it watchable once more. Now, don't get me wrong - there are some serious flaws with "Different Kinds", and I am about to point them out, but don't let the flaws distract you from an otherwise interesting motion picture.
The film stars Jackie Billotte as Natalie and Britt Rodemich as Kate, two friends driving across the country to celebrate the end of the semester. Where are they going? Who knows, but they do a lot of driving and random, pointless conversing along the way. Eventually, they are attacked by a bloody man named Jared (Chris Borden), who kidnaps Natalie. Turns out they know one another and once dated, however briefly. Jared and his partner, Sal (Gina Di Tullio) were transporting a briefcase for their employer, Kit (Louise Warner), when things went wrong, with Sal turning on Jared. The race begins, as Jared and Natalie try to beat Sal, who has now kidnapped Kate, to Denver, where they are planning to meet Kit with the briefcase. Along the way, Jared and Natalie re-connect, if you can call it that, and Sal leaves a trail of blood for several hundred miles. It all comes to a head at the drop off point, where everything is finally put to the test.
There is a lot of driving in this picture, and I do mean a lot. Too much. After a while, we want to see a little more than scenery flying past a window. There is also too much yelling - it seems that each character, with the exception of Sal, gets their big 'breaking glass' scream fest. And how about how Jared says he needs to beat Sal to Denver, but then does everything in his power to move as slowly as possible, stopping to beat his head against the steering wheel or smoke a cigarette or just admire the beautiful Colorado landscape. His character also works on the idiotic assumption that just because he threatens a girl to stay in the car or not scream for help, that she'll actually do it. So what if he threatens to kill a girl at the picnic table - bitch would be running for the hills. There was also a bizarre attempt at Quentin Tarantino dialogue which really doesn't work, especially when it comes in the form of the whole 'put the cap on the chocolate syrup' analogy. But, I suppose my biggest beef with the picture was the length. This movie topped two hours and it shouldn't have been a minute over ninety minutes. There is so much that could and should be cut out of this film that would make it far more complete and far more accessible. I hope they take note.
The performances here are above average for a film of this budget. Jackie Billotte still gets pretty annoying as Natalie, always seeming to find new ways to seem more and more nasal. She plays the hostage exactly how a hostage would never be played. As Jared, Chris Borden is not very convincing as the bad ass. He obviously thinks taking his time to deliver certain lines will make those lines more powerful, and that's just not the way it works. Gina Di Tullio is the highlight of the film, actually managing to seem physically dominating over Borden. She has the most fun with her role, and probably because her role had the best writing. Britt Rodemich was more than a little distracting as Kate, and I was not sorry when I saw her rotting in the trunk. They should have put her back there somewhere during the first half of the film. And what's with Louise Warner as Kit? She looks more like a charter member of the P.T.A. in her mom jeans that she does a crime boss. Maybe they should have found someone with...I don't know...testosterone for that role. All of the women in this film are played in unusual ways, and a lot of them are made far more powerful than they could ever conceivably be. Maybe it's a feminist thing. It was somewhat distracting.
All of that said, the film worked. The cinematography was better than most independent films I see these days, and they made good use of the Colorado landscapes and skylines. The locations for the film were really beautiful and that went a long way in my enjoyment. The score also helped add a nice minimalistic approach to the film, in the same way a Coen Brothers score helps with the mood of the film. Though the dialogue went on too long, a lot of it worked and seemed natural enough, though more attention should have been paid to developing the characters outside of their flashback sequences. I wanted to know more of what made people tick in the present, not months before. "Different Kinds" was an enjoyable film that looks far more polished than the budget would have wanted it to look. It finds the balance that "The Life I Lived" couldn't find and runs with it. And, at the very least - it's kind of quirky. I recommend the film, and wish it all the best.
7/10.
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