Review: Surveillance (2009)

[Scott Mendelson]

Surveillance
2009
97 minutes
Rated R

by Scott Mendelson

Puzzle box movies are a mixed blessing. The best of them are
completely absorbing and compelling regardless of their climactic
reveals or final incidents. So even if you know 'the big secret' of
The Sixth Sense, the film still works as a emotional drama about a
young boy with an unimaginable problem and how it affects his
relationship with his mother. And even if you know where The Usual
Suspects is heading, it's still a well-acted crime drama with a
compelling narrative under its belt. But if the sole intent of a given
film is to play a climactic game of 'gotcha' with the audience, then
said filmmakers had best be darned sure that we can't guess the big
answers before we're intended to know them. Otherwise the film becomes
an exercise in tedium.

Surveillance is a movie all about deducing how a specific crime
unfolded. At the beginning of the picture, there is a murder and
apparent kidnapping, followed by a mass murder along a country road.
The three witnesses are an eight year old girl, a strung out junkie,
and a local cop. The inquisitors are two out-of-town FBI agents (Bill
Pullman and Julia Ormond) who have invested months in this apparent
cross-country crime spree. As the feds press the survivors for
relevant information, the narrative of just what happened unfolds from
several points of view, with none of the narrators proving all that
reliable.

The picture, directed by Jennifer Lynch (the woman behind the infamous
Boxing Helana), may very well have worked as an hour-long short film
on Showtime or HBO. But this is a full-length 97-minute feature, and
there just isn't enough storytelling to fill up the allotted time. As
a result, the opening act is full of atmosphere and character
introduction, without a hint of actual character development or
narrative progression. The film is filled with solid character actors,
such as Michael Ironside, Cheri Oreri, and French Stewart, but the
dialogue is shockingly bland and the cast is generally wasted. The set
up is interesting and the actors (especially Pullman and Kent Harper)
are game, but the film is just light on substance for much of its
running time.

There are a few moments of twisted diversion. In a flashback, two cops
spend their day terrorizing motorists unlucky enough to be caught
speeding, teaching them to never ever break the speed limit again. And
while the violence is surprisingly restrained, there are just enough
moments of gore or surprise bloodletting to snap us awake. But most of
the running time is basically spent waiting for the inevitable
reveals, when we finally see how the mass killing played out and which
characters are hiding which secrets. If you don't figure it out early
on, you simply sit there waiting for the reveals. If you've figured it
out already, the film is almost unbearably dull.

In the end, Surveillance is a puzzle box film that has nothing to
offer except the various puzzle pieces. The characters do not stand
out, the drama is not compelling, and the screenplay is light on even
remotely interesting dialogue. There just isn't enough story and
character to fill up a feature length movie, so the entire first and
second acts just come off as filler. Considering the talent involved,
Surveillance is a major disappointment.

Grade: C-