Out of Season (2004) starring Dennis Hopper, Gina Gershon, Jordan Frieda, Dominique Swain, Jim Carter, David Murray directed by Jevon O'Neill Movie Review

Out of Season (2004)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Jordan Frieda in Out of Season (2004)

Out of Whack

Pierre (Jordan Frieda) has been earning money at an out of season amusement park owned by Michael Philips (Jim Carter) whilst seeing his daughter Kelly (Dominique Swain - Lolita). With Pierre getting ready to move on Kelly has her low life friend Simeon (David Murray) not only burgle his place to steal his money but then has him offer Pierre some work to keep him around. But when Pierre tries to rob the bar owned by former burglar Harry (Dennis Hopper - The Night We Called It a Day) Pierre finds himself working for the former crook. Meanwhile Kelly's step-mum Eileen (Gina Gershon - Driven) is cheating on Michael with Simeon who together plan to murder Michael for the insurance money.

As you can see from that short and direct synopsis "Out of Season" is a movie of 6 characters with storylines which interweave. It's not anything special for being such but it is one of the more convoluted interweaving movies you will find with a tangled web of cross overs and double crosses going on. That in itself isn't a bad thing as a group of corrupt people and all those involved are corrupt in some form or another trying to screw over each other has the potential to be an entertaining thriller.

Dennis Hopper in Out of Season (2004)

Sadly the potential to be good goes missing thanks to writer and director Jevon O'Neill's vision and stylistic flourishes. The combination of being slow and ponderous with constantly varying camera shots ranging from on angle to reflective to very close causes it to jar. I can see what O'Neill was possibly aiming for, something noir like but modern but the style becomes intrusive on the telling of the story causing that potential to dissipate quickly as it constantly veers to being style over substance.

The sad thing is that despite suffering from a director who appears hell bent on making every scene artistic the performances are generally good. Dennis Hopper is the big star name in this movie and his presence helps as he makes Harry a believable character, an old man full of crooked wisdom. And Hopper brings out a good performance from Jordan Frieda who at times has a touch of the young Paul Walker about him. Plus the likes of Jim Carter, Dominique Swain and Gina Gershon deliver solid performances whilst David Murray creates a larger than life character as the seedy Simeon.

What this all boils down to is that "Out of Season" could have been a good movie if it wasn't for the over styling causing it to jar which when you have a convoluted and twisting storyline is not what you need.


LATEST REVIEWS