An Uneasy Revenge
Having been left with a limp Arthur Black (Christopher J. Domig) can no longer be the lead man in the robberies he pulls off with his girlfriend Monique (Valerie Monique Evering). It means that now Monique pulls off their robberies whilst he waits in the car with her daughter, Maria (Zaira Crystal), in the back seat to make a quick get away. But life changes when his wife goes to rob a bank only to end up being killed by security guard, Max (Danny Hoskins), leaving Arthur to flee with Maria. Determined to exact revenge Arthur arranges for him and Maria to move into the apartment where Max lives with his wife Janet (Lindsay Goranson) and he strikes up a friendship with her, discovering she is not happy in her marriage. But with each day which passes the need for revenge is eating away at Max and making him prone to delusion especially when he is convinced that in another apartment are some kidnappers.
"Second-Story Man" is one of those movies which when I read the synopsis for it I thought good but then having watched the movie I was left under whelmed. The reason being is that despite it being a solidly made movie which doesn't really suffer from poor acting or camera work does suffer from being one of those slow and often silent movies. Frankly it makes "Second-Story Man" one of those movies which if you are not a huge fan of independent cinema it sometimes struggles to really grab your attention.
But despite this that underlying storyline which sees Arthur plotting his revenge on Mac, getting close to his wife and also struggling to separate reality from the delusional thoughts he is having is a strong one. It gives "Second-Story Man" an element of ambiguity as you don't know for sure how this movie is going to end. Although having said that, I did end up under whelmed by the ending.
What this all boils down to is that "Second-Story Man" is simply a case of a decent story but just an okay movie. Maybe for those who enjoy indie cinema might find this a lot more enthralling than I did.
