Lost Solace

I was at the Whistler Film Festival this weekend (December 2016) and I was quite keen on seeing a locally produced film called "Lost Solace". The film was billed as a SciFi thriller. The premise of the film was in short, very intriguing and fresh. The screenplay, however, was very disappointing as character development throughout the film proved to be slow, disjointed and difficult to follow. This may also have been attributed to the extremely slow pacing of the film. Writers Andrew Jenkins and Chris Scheuerman started out with a great idea but failed to develop that idea into a palatable script.

Andrew Jenkin's performance as the dashingly handsome but disturbed narcissist/psychopath, Spence, was remarkably dull, and uninteresting. He performed his lines as though he was reading a script "run through" for the very first time. Andrew Jenkins wasn't terrible and he was appropriately cast as he is just as handsome in person as he is on screen, but his performance lacked the energy needed to exemplify the true complexity of his character's personality and the inner self that was destroying him. However, I find it unfortunate when a film relies solely on an actor's good looks to carry the film through a script that was anything but exciting, let alone thrilling.

Charlie Kerr's character, Jory a mentally disturbed brother of Spence's next victim, Azaria (Melissa Roxburgh), was simply overplayed. Kerr's opening scene with his shrugged shoulders and distorted facial expressions were just creepy and failed to enhance the suspense the film had intended for this character.

Melissa Roxburgh's (Azaria) performance made her character believable. Her lines and character development, although scripturally challenging played the naïve love interest of Spence, with delicate softness and naivety which was not perceived as being disingenuous but real.

The real winner of this film was Thomas Billingsley, the director of cinematography. His shots were fluid and crisp, where camera angles, set lighting and special effects were strategically placed to successfully enhance the visuals of this film. Billingsley executed his expertise in filmmaking admirably which resulted in giving this film a sense of professionalism that you would normally only see with big budget projects.

In summary, the film was disappointing to watch. Unfortunately, great cinematography and beautiful actors aren't enough to keep me interested in watching this film to the end.