Review of Compliance (2012) by Cameron J — 09 Feb 2013

So remember, kids, don't prank call someone, especially if you're as disturbed as Pat Healy's character in this film, because you're not too likely to find victims that are this stupidly naive. I love how there have been, like, a million times in which the mass media (*cough*libe*cough*rals*cough*) has come out and said that we should slow down on the unhealthy fast-food, and yet it's this film about some weirdo prank caller forcing people to sexually abuse a teenaged girl that's kind of making me too uncomfortable to want to visit a fast-food place anytime soon. Of course, it might just be easy for me to say that because the fast-food place portrayed in this film, ChickWich, looks to be about as lame as its name. Even for Ohio, this fictional restaurant is bland, based on its name, alone, so I probably wouldn't eat there if I didn't know about the sexual abuse being conducted in the back by people naive enough to buy that a disturbed freak is a cop. You know, the more I lay out this film's plot, the dumber it sounds as a hopefully effective thriller, but make no mistake, folks, this film is more exciting than it sounds on paper, or at least that's what other people will tell you. Yeah, I don't know about y'all, but as messed up as this film gets at times, on the while, I found myself unable to comply with the film's demands to go with its "thrills". Still, no matter how much the film loses you, you never drift too far away from the final product, finding enough of a moderate degree of engagement value to keep contempt from setting in, partially thanks to, of all things, the effectiveness in subject matter.

I go on and on about how thin this film's story is, and justly so, as the subject matter that this film follows, while worthy, does not and, well, cannot work on film if taken on with immense "realism", yet do note that I did, in fact, deem this film's subject matter worthy, not necessarily in a way that translates all the comfortably in dramatization, but decidedly to the point of creating some degree of intrigue and weight. The basic concept of sexual abuse that rests at the core of this film's subject matter is something that is not to be taken lightly, and while the other pieces of story structure surrounding this aspect are so paper-thin that it's hard to gain all that firm of a grip on consequence, there's no denying that there is at least some hint of dramatic value to this film's basic concepts, occasionally emphasized by all too rare moments in which director Craig Zobel wakes up and delivers on genuinely potent atmosphere that pulls you in. I wish I could say that there is at least one point of rewarding compellingness at any point throughout this film, yet too much in the way of dramatic potential is undercut by natural and consequential shortcomings, though not so much so that there aren't still moments that are more effective than others, partially thanks to the occasional strength in Zobel's storytelling and largely thanks to the consistent strength in this film's cast. Oh man, do I seriously wish I could say that this film at least explores the weight of its subject matter enough to provide our performers with enough material to grace the final product with acting that is, on the whole, upstanding, and as much a key component to this film's going saved from contempt as the awesome acting was a key component to the saving of something like the misguided bore that was "The Magdalene Sisters", but there is surprisingly only so much for our talented cast to work with, with even the particularly acclaimed Ann Dowd being presented a character with few layers and few opportunities to deliver on all that much dramatic range. Still, with that said, while this film's acting value isn't as sharp as I was expecting it to be, when these performers are given the material that they should be having throughout the film, they deliver, with the underwritten Ann Dowd occasionally reminding people why she's so acclaimed through very human and expressive emotional punch, while Pat Healy convinces as our disturbed yet clever antagonist, and most everyone else in this cast has his or her own moment to shine. The performers' being given as much material as they should have isn't a consistent event, yet there is quite a bit of human range to most everyone's performance, and such humanity particularly reflects the thinly handled, but conceptually undeniable degree of weight that this film was never to have too much of, but still has just enough of to go saved from a slip into contempt. Of course, what truly saves this film most of all is the classic saving grace that has saved many a film this mediocre: too much blandness for badness to ensue, because as effective as this film is on the relative rarest of occasions, on the whole, this film falls flat as mediocre misfire of a bore, which, as I said, was never to boast too much in the way of weight, due to natural shortcomings in story concept.

As I said, this film's core conflict, a crude prank that descends into humanity-shaking thorough emotional abuse, is weighty and worthy, but the actual plot that surrounds this film's conflict is thin something fierce, emphasizing the areas in which conflict lapses more than the areas in which conflict accels, until what you end up with is a thriller with no real sense of conseqeunce, something that was never to be too rich, not just because of the natural limitations in this film's subject matter, but the tremendous exposition issues that distance you almost wholly from characters who are portrayed well enough to sustain a little bit of your interest, but not nearly fleshed out enough to consistently compel, or even provide enough motivation for you to get a firmer grip on what sense of conflict there is. If motivation is needed for no other reason, then it's to justify the key naivity of this film's characters, whose behavior and reactions are often beyond justification, for although I fully understand that this film is based on quite a few real-life incidents, one of the most frustrating aspects about this film is its going too far with its portrayals of the gullibility of our leads, and disturbance of our antagonist (What cop outside of a bachelor or bachelorette party do you know has people firmly but somewhat lightly spanked for insubordination?), which are initially down-to-earth, but gradually grow more and more farfetched, with not enough compensating motivation establishment, to the point of somehow contradicting the depth within characters who have few, if any more notes than one, and that halts compellingness so quickly that the only ounce of tension that you get is from the fear that you'll snap your neck from the suddenness of the momentum's braking. The film is initially relatively clever with its portrayals of human behavior, but after a while, it finds itself slowly but surely creeping further and further away from full believability, until by the end, the film is just plain laughably stupid, so much so that even the characters keep addressing how over-the-top their naivity got, though not enough to redeem this film's humanity issues, which are glaring and would be more forgivable if this film just wasn't so blasted bland. I was going into this film fearing some degree of dullness, yet was relieved to find that the film relatively rarely slips into the dreaded state of being utterly boring, though not as relieved as I would like to have been, because this film, with all of its slightly engaging occasions, is just too bland for its own good. Sure, as I said, this film is too bland to be bad, but the fact of the matter is that this film is just so exceedingly bland in its atmosphere on the whole, leaving the final product to fall flat as a thriller and call more to attention the flaw that really does almost do the film in as worse than merely mediocre: monotony. Sure, this film's story concept doesn't allow for a whole lot of range in story structure, but hardly anything goes on in this film, and when things do, in fact, occur, they tend to come back too often, creating considerable repetition that joins other forms in excessive padding in all but fizzling out what steam there is in this film. Some of the flaws mentioned aren't as severe as I make them sound, and some are even worse than I make them sound, and while the film never gets to be so flawed that it's unable to go saved by its strengths and, of course, simply being too bland to be despicable, what potential there is goes undercut more and more as the film meanders along, before finally sputtering out as a forgettable and, on the whole, uncompelling thriller that could have - nay - should have been more.

In closing, there are effective areas in this film's subject matter that are brought to life by genuinely effective occasions in Craig Zobel's storytelling, as well as by a cast of underwritten, but generally pretty strong performers, thus the film is kept from getting to be too disengaging, though not so surely that mediocrity is kept at bay, gradually ensuing quite considerably, on the wings of considerable plot and exposition thinness, ever-decreasing believability in character behavior and, of course, a monotously do-little story structure that meanders along with hardly any real sense of consequence, until "Compliance" is left to fall flat as a misguided non-thriller that may not be all-out bad, but is most definately not as engaging as it probably could have been.

2/5 - Mediocre.