Review of Best Man Down (2012) by Nathan M — 24 Feb 2014

Or The One Where We're Supposed to Laugh... Or is it Cry... Or is it Ponder Social Issues... Or is it All of the Above?

I didn't have any hope for this being anything great when I first found this film on Netflix Instant, but then around 20 minutes in I thought it might be better than expected. Unfortunately around the 45 minute mark I knew director Ted Koland was not the person to bring this story to life. The film is full of uneven tones, all of which are passable in their own right, but none of them are fully formed enough to be compelling by the end of the film. Perhaps in the hands of a more focused storyteller these characters would have been done justice; however, what we're left with is a halfway gestated film which needed a little bit more time in the womb.

Just as the tones in this film clash, so do the performances on screen. Where Tyler Lavine and Addison Timlin give charismatic and interesting performances, Justin Long and Jess Weixler just seem unnecessary. I'm not sure that's their fault or if its the fault of Koland, but the two characters whose eyes we're supposed to see the film through just seem completely unnecessary. If the film had just been about Lavine and Timlin's characters getting to know each other, I think it would have been more focused and compelling.

But maybe this is just symptomatic of the problems Koland brought to the film. It was unclear what kind of story he was wanting to tell, and Long and Weixler's story is all about realizing what you do and don't know about a person. But if that's the story Koland wanted to tell, there was no need to give us the back story on Timlin from her perspective, because that's the story I was more interested in.

In the end, none of the stories are given enough time to form in the way they deserve, and the entire film suffers for it.