October 22

"October 22" starts with a bloody and stumbling man calling the police about an active shooter. This is a scene that we've become intimately familiar with in the 2000's, but in 1999 that was still unheard of.

O22 is about several random and unrelated people who all happened to be dining in a restaurant when a lone crazed gunman came in and starting shooting people. When random violence strikes, the victims can be from any walk of life. There was a divorcee with a friend, a guy on his way to his second job, a couple on their first date, a waitress who just found out she's pregnant, and several other unsuspecting diners. The crazy that burst in on all of them was a mystery until the very end to also illustrate that crazy has no identifiable face.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this film. This movie focused on one day in the lives of several Los Angeles residents. None of the main characters lead extraordinary lives so I could relate to almost all of them on a personal level. I thought it was so clever how the characters in the different storylines unconsciously passed each other, either on the street, in a bank or at the store without knowing that later that day they would all share in a horrific life altering experience. I absolutely loved the storyline surrounding Carol (played by Donna Murphy). Carol is a middle aged, jilted woman, whose husband dumped her for his younger, surgically enhanced secretary. I thought Tate Donovan did a fabulous job as a typical, young fast talking businessman, who spent his day trying to woo a beautiful woman he met outside his office. I also thought Michael Pare, who played a down on his luck factory worker, did a wonderful job. It really bothered me to see this particular actor play such a dismal, almost pathetic character, I found myself wishing I could help him. The movie progressed fast and the climatic ending had a surprising twist, which I liked. I did not come out of this movie with a joyous feeling, but I definitely got a lot out of it, life is short, make the best of it.

October 22 was fairly entertaining and has a few funny moments and this is also a ''shortcuts kind of movie''. It was trying to tell a story from the start until the last 15 minutes and I was asking myself how will it end?, what moral will I receive from this movie?. The ending was completely stupid, ruining everything that the movie was hardly trying to tell. Let me say it without spoiling the end: It was really violent. Overall, a movie that could have been good without this really awful ending........5/10

***SPOILERS*** Some dozen peoples lives intersect at one place on October 22 in L.A and the results is an explosion that ends with the death of most of them. Gary, Michael Pare, is at the end of his rope with him losing his job and girlfriend Maggie, Erika Anderson. Thrown out of his apartment and living in his car with it about to be taken away from him for failure to pay off the car-loan to the bank Gary goes to the local pawn shop and pawns away his expensive watch for a handgun. Not being able to face the world anymore Gary decides to put an end to it all by blowing his brains out.

There's are a number of other people in the movie with problems not as serious as Gary's but serious enough to have them go off the deep end. One of them is sweet and kind-hearted Arthur, Ernie Hudson. Arthur is fixated with his next door neighbor Denise, Amanda Plummer, who he's been secretly spying on for years taking thousands of photos of her.

In the film is public relations man Peter,Tate Donovan, and the girl of his dreams Andrea ,Maylin Pultar, and hurt and depressed Carol,Donna Murphy, who's husband Matthew, Joesph Arsenault, left her after a fifteen year marriage for his new secretary. There's also both her's and Matthews friend Steve, Colm Meaney, who tries to patch things up between the two but becomes the object of Carol's affections. Finally there's Bob, Mark Boone Jr, a car mechanic who's son's birthday is today, October 22. All these people come together, as if by fate, at Helen's Restaurant for what turns out to be for them a violent and blood-splattering last supper.The movie "October 22" shows how the pressure of living in a in a major 20th century metropolis, with people for the most part being totally unconscious to each other feelings, can drive someone insane to the point of mass murder.

Longing for her friendship Arthur opens himself up to Denise but his obsessive attention towards her completely turned Denise off. Hurt and enraged at Denise's rejection of, what he feels, his good intentions Authur goes from a kindly and lovable Teddy-Bear type of person into an insane and homicidal maniac. Arming himself to the teeth Arthur drives into town to where Denise works as a waitress, Helen's Restaurant, where all the previously mentioned people in the film just happen to be dining!

It's also outside Helen's that Gary is sitting in an alley way with a gun to his mouth trying to find the courage to pull the trigger. As it turns out it's Arthur who pulls the trigger first. It's that very timely and deadly event that gives Gary a reason for living not just for himself but for the people who are, unknowingly to him at the time, about to be slaughtered.

Shocking disturbing yet in a way heart-lifting movie about one's redemption in the mist of total chaos and destruction and how when under the most trying and brutal of circumstances is what brings the best, as well as worst, out of all of us.

This is exactly why there are indie films... for smaller, dramatic stories that don't fit neatly into one specific genre. But this is an involving, emotional movie full of extraordinarily strong acting from its ensemble cast. It's especially rewarding to see Michael Pare do such a great job, and to see Broadway star Donna Murphy in a motion picture. And I especially loved the score, by UK pop star Midge Ure. I also like seeing Amanda Plummer, Ernie Hudson, and Colm Meaney cast against type, but Tate Donovan delivers the majority of the comic relief in the film, as one might expect from his exemplary sitcom work. Not a theatrical gem, but a classic rental. Too bad there are no extras on the DVD.