September 17, 2010: Blame
My final film for the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival is Blame, an Australian effort about some teens who take their ex-teacher prisoner in a misguided attempt at revenge for his earlier treatment of one of their peers. A well-mounted production to be sure, Blame suffers from requiring just a bit too much suspension of disbelief, which at the same time highlights how accustomed we have become to genre conventions and why it’s so hard to escape from them when trying to tell a more realistic story. Dialogue is ridiculous at times, though perhaps more realistic than we’d like to admit.
We go to the movies to see well-planned capers, with every little detail covered, and quick reactions and recoveries when someone does something unexpected and foils the plan. What audiences don’t like so much is the fact that very few people plan their criminal activities in such detail, and even when they do, there’s so much that’s unpredictable that it’s impossible to be fully prepared. In Blame, a group in their late teens decides to ambush their former teacher, who is known to have had an inappropriate relationship with one of their friends some years earlier. This friend has recently committed suicide, and the group has come directly from her funeral. The kids think they have planned a perfect crime, to make it look like the teacher has taken an overdose of pills, but things go drastically wrong. Could it be because they are all suffering from a lack of sleep and are at the peak of their grief for their lost friend? Well, of course it is.
The film plays out with the usual ups and downs of apparent success being dashed by yet another error or intrusion. Some of the guys are out of control and violent at times, but it’s played realistically with them backing down quickly amid pleading from their friends. Also, rather than one of the guys being always the calm one and one always being irrational and impulsive, they each have their desperate moments, which is more likely what would happen in reality as everyone is stretched toward their breaking point by some different trigger. The girls find out more and more about the layers of truth behind the story, and struggle with how to get out of this ordeal once they realize that things aren’t as they seemed. Things come to a disastrous climax, with the result being something that none of them ever expected, even though it’s exactly what they should have all realized would happen.
I can’t see myself ever wanting to re-watch Blame, and I don’t think I would recommend it except to fans of the teen revenge crime genre, but it was an OK movie to watch and I’m glad I made this selection at the film festival.
Genre exercise which made me think.
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