Review of The Retrieval (2013) by Stahl M — 02 Mar 2015

Chris Eska made this period drama in a fashion which was very heavy on the viewer. Well acted from Ashton Sanders as Will, Tishuan Scott as Nate, Keston John as Marcus and Bill Oberst Jr. as Burrell, the story wasn't deep enough to keep me involved and satisfied.

In 1864, as Civil war ravages the nation, but the slave-owners and traders, as well as bounty hunters keep working. The story follows Will, a fatherless 13 year-old boy, who survives by working with a white bounty hunter gang. He is a bite for runaway slaves in order to lure them back to the South. But, the last mission is the most dangerous one. Our heroes go into the free North to find Nate, a fugitive freedman. Things go wrong and Will and Nate find themselves on the run...

I really wanted this to be a lot better. It's definitely not a bad film, but it did test my patience few times. It was evenly paced but there was not much originality in it. Solid directing, shallow script and nice photography.