Vulnerable Victim
Following a heart attack not only did Matthew Connor (Lochlyn Munro) have to deal with his wife Lynn (Erin Karpluk) trying to make him eat healthy and his advertising business struggling having lost a couple of contracts but a sense of feeling in a rut and needing more rather than just settling for only okay. It is why when he is approached by Dianne (Jamie Luner) who says she can not only improve his business but also his life that he becomes hooked and accepting what ever they want from him; be it signing over half the business to shutting out Lynn from important decisions. But as Matthew's behaviour becomes weirder and weirder Lynn becomes increasingly concerned that they are brainwashing him and she is going to lose not only him but her daughter as well.
Just stop, pause, listen and breathe - no I am not about to hit you with some sort of meditation or new age stuff but asking you to do these things if you decide to watch "Out of Reach" and quickly become put off by the production. You see look beyond the obvious and pay attention to the detail and "Out of Reach" has some intelligence going on. Unfortunately the other side of "Out of Reach" is always there and it seems forced and ridiculous.
So let me get the negative out of the way with first and that is how "Out of Reach" comes across as we watch Matthew become involved in this cult like system who begin to control him. From the rationality of my mind watching Matthew and his new consultants seems too forced, from the chanting, the flirting, through to the thinly concealed threats to those who question what they are up to. My rational mind says it is an issue which arises from trying to cram too much in to one movie and so forcing things in a bad way such as when Lynn sees two of the guides in their buttoned up to the neck blue shirts observing her but it does really drag the movie down by throwing so much at us. Now I could go on because the longer the movie goes on the more forced and far fetched it becomes.
So let me switch things around and highlight some of the positives and the first is that we see that Matthew is in a vulnerable state early on having had a health scare he feels like he needs more from his life than just compromising for okay. You can see how it would be easy for those who know how to get into people's minds could manipulate those looking for more. And whilst some of what this sect seem to get up to appears to be far fetched it builds up the tension between Lynn and Matthew which in turn we get to see how this affects her daughter. There are a few more good aspects including what the sect use the money for.
What this all boils down to is that "Out of Reach" has some very good points when it comes to how someone could find themselves involved in a sect and the knock on effect of those around them. But at the same time by trying to include so much in to such a limited time it ends up forcing things to the point of ending up cheesy.