Kind of an odd show. David plays an advertising executive who is heading home. He sees some homeless people and decides to avoid them, so he cuts through a park. It must be one huge park, because there are a lot of trees and open areas and you never see more than a few people in the park. It looks like a really cool park. Anyway, David's character, Murray, is cutting through the park and gets lost. He meets up with Kevin, who plays Carter. He asks Carter where the exit is. Carter tells Murray to give him his wallet. Murray knocks him out of the way with his brief case, only to find himself surrounded by a gang of kids, one with a baseball bat. Murray runs for it and hides up a tree. Quite a feat with slippery dress shoes, but he climbs up this very large tree to hide. The gang find him in the tree and laugh their heads off. Murray tries to get rid of them by giving them his wallet and watch, but they also want him to come down and apologize to Carter.The rest of the show, Murray is in the tree until sunrise and the gang are below waiting for him to come down. Now the show is about 90 minutes long and supposed to represent the greater portion of one night. 90 minutes is a long time to be sitting on a tree branch. All night, my buttocks would have the bark tattooed into the cheeks. Then you think about how long they probably took to film the show. That is a loooonng time to be in a tree.
Shark, played by Cle Bennett, is the oldest and leads the gang. Rather bright when it comes to dealing with Murray in some of the manipulations, but lets his anger and fear trickle in to rule some of his decisions and actions. He takes offense to Murray and the other "rich" or "well to do" people, and plays the "poor oppressed kid" as part of his manipulation. For a thug, he is actually very intelligent, which seems almost out of character. Of course, that may be my prejudiced opinion. I always get rubbed the wrong way, when people play that "everyone is picking on be because I'm _____."
Aaron and Jessica, play brother and sister, Dwayne and Kelly. Dwayne is older and watches after Kelly. Kelly thinks her brother is just being a pain, meddling in her life. KC, Carter Hayden, is a gang banger who has been loyal to Shark.
Julian Richings plays a homeless man who runs into Murray in the park, before he met up with the gang. When he meets with Murray, he asks for some change and Murray tells him "No thanks, I'll pass." The homeless guy shows up later that night and Murray asks for help.
Throughout the evening and into the night, we begin to see everyone's true colors, including Murray's. This makes for a very captivating story with a lot of surprises. The big surprise comes at the end, but let's not ruin it here for you.
The "French" used was rather prolific. Growing up in Utah, when a play was performed, we heard some "Dad gum it" and "fetch" instead of the swear words originally written. I still find that part quite offensive and the main reason for the R-restricted rating. So if you have tender ears, you may want to avoid it.
The performance by David was phenomenal. You definitely start out on his side, and then you get a bit disappointed in him as his character flaws come forth. I laughed, I cried, and I worried for his safety.
Cle was very animated and I enjoyed the "pretend talk" he would do. He had a great performance as well. I disliked him through most of the movie, but still laughed at his antics and admired his cleverness in the various situations.
Aaron played the silent guy for about half of the movie. I caught another movie from Disney called Cadet Kelly. I thought for sure that was him in the movie. When I researched it, I found out that Aaron has a younger twin who played in the "Cadet Kelly" movie. Who would have thunk it. He did a good job throughout the movie and he was believable most of the time.
Jessica and Carter seemed a bit forced at times. They were a bit younger in this movie and may not have had the experience. Kevin was much more believable and I found myself crying when I heard his story.
Julian brings life to just about any role. He has a rather distinctive look that makes him very recognizable in all of his movies. He did an excellent job in the 2.5 scenes.
The music was more hip hop for the theme song. The song "Falling Forward" was beautiful and was nominated for a Genie award. Kudos to Jim McGrath, Joel Feeney and Marc Jordan.
If you can get past the swearing, it is an excellent movie. I didn't like it the first time I saw it, yet it intrigued me enough to watch it again and again. This is billed as a psychological thriller and it is. There is no difference between the US version and the Canadian version. I hope you will take this opportunity to watch it soon.
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