Intervention

It's heartbreaking to think we live in a time where media has become so disposable that features like this pass as entertainment. It's entirely possible that I'll spend more time writing this than the filmmakers spent devising "Intervention"s narrative. There aren't enough plot details in it to craft a decent synopsis let alone screenplay, so I can't bore you with one. Besides, the screenwriters seem to have stolen all of the 'boring' for themselves. This jumps on the "Unfriended" bandwagon; attempting to capitalise on the success of the far superior "Host", but arrives about 2 years too late. Pity. "Intervention" fails to inject any life or original flourishes into the Zoom/Teams/Video Call feature format. It pales in comparison to the likes of Aneesh Chaganty's "Searching", a film which managed to be thrilling and inventive despite the limitations of the format. Footage does not look authentic and location/set dressing and lighting are as bland as the cast. The performances are exactly what you would expect from a No Budget production. The amateur cast are clearly trying their best but their efforts just aren't good enough, and the material and direction do nothing to help them. Dialogue is appalling and there's a complete lack of chemistry between the cast suggesting that each of the performances were filmed on separate occasions. Who knows! Rob Savage clearly understands how to entertain an audience and he kept things brisk and brief on "Host". Unfortunately Samesh Ramjattan does no such thing with "Intervention". This is mostly dull and uneventful and he doesn't even have the courtesy to keep the proceedings short. It drags. A lot. The 105 minute run time feels twice as long. "Intervention" is categorised as a 'Mystery/Thriller' but there are No Thrills and the only mystery here is; why did the filmmakers think that anyone would want to watch this? Avoid like the plague.

I feel it's entirely plausible, if not to be expected, that a 12 year old submitting this as their AV-homework would subsequently fail the class. It's the umpteenth disfigured afterbirth created in the attempt to needlessly evolve the found footage genre. 'Intervention' depicts the most civil, insanely well organised, crystal clear videoconference over a buffer-free and flawless connection, where -for the entire agonising duration closing in on two hours- not a single person gets interrupted. Ever.

It's this lack of any connection with reality, a theme recurring far too many times, that ultimately makes the film rather painful to sit through. The acting isn't particularly horrendous, the storyline not unacceptable, the character progression no travesty; it's the liberties taken that simply scream "This will do fine." It's the utterly and clearly mechanical movement of the mouse indicator on the main character's screen, and expecting it not to be noticed. It's the scene showing all video-chatters vehemently pondering the origin of 'an arm in a photograph', and the main character not noticing the exact same tattoo on the full length of her own entire bare forearm. There are numerous scenes containing a face-palm-worthy discordance between this seemingly hasty, sloppy filmmaking and the frame of reference of anyone alive.

Unless you thoroughly enjoy making glottal noises at a film less realistic than the sun in Teletubbies, it'll likely be best to refrain from watching 'Intervention'.