Scelte pericolose

Quirky intelligent little tale of a boy choosing between his foster parents' dream of college and his older brother's exciting life of crime. A lot of fun funky little touches. Pacing is slow, but it's quite interesting.

Sleeper alert: A straight-to-video-cable flick that upon closer inspection is a very intriguing character study. Ignore the generic video box cover and the ubiquitous straight-to-vid Madsen: note the talented cast, (modine, parker, balk) and director (hunter, "river's edge) and allow yourself to give this movie a chance. A troubled but gifted teen confronts his 18th birthday with his troubled and lost friends, when a stranger (or is he?...) enters his life. Low-key, well played, with a bit of generic warehouse shoot-out footage probably a necessity to get funding...the filmmaker's make a real effort on a scant budget, and despite flaws, any accomplishment however small shouldn't be overlooked in this time of cookie-cutting filmmaking. See it!

For the most part, the only things that brought me through the whole film are that it was very difficult to get the loan of a copy of the film via interlibrary loan, and it has Rhys Meyers (as he spelled it for this film) in it, who is always nice to look at. Although there is a good premise for an interesting film and story, there was not enough continuity and plot development to keep me interested and engaged. There were a number of subplots and minor characters which and who really didn't add anything of value to the story. I think that if you are a fan of Rhys-Myers or Modine, you may want to see the film in order to get to see them in an unreleased-for-theaters film, but otherwise, it really isn't work your time or trouble. If you're planning to enjoy looking at Rhys-Myers' skin, you can do a lot better with some of his other work. Tangled may not be an excellent film, either, but he drops his pants for you in it, and that is worth something you won't get out of "The Maker."

One of the best movies I've ever stumbled across. A great character-driven low-budget film. Definitely worth checking out for yourself.

If ever I need to renew my enthusiasm about current filmmaking, a film featuring the talents of Mary Louise Parker is a pretty good place to start. Her part in this film is as a supporting character, and the few scenes in which she appears and fleshes out the kindly but down to earth police officer underline how this film's best parts unfortunately don't add up to a good movie.

The leads are good (Rhys-Meyers is a talent to watch, Balk has always interested me and if Modine just sat and dribbled, I know he could make it look rivetting), the script contains some nice character exchanges, the camera work has some nice touches, and director Tim Hunter puts effort into giving the film some unexpected lift (such as sitting a crim at a desk on open ground beside an airport runway, and getting the art department to set up a backyard breakfast patio of white picket fence and red flowers under the threatening gaze of power lines.)

But although it started well, in the end, this is too many good individual stories fighting with each other instead of making a coherent whole. Any one of the various plot lines could've held their own. At film's end, the script has to literally shoot its way out of the entwined mess its in to reach a conclusion. Maybe this goes down well on cable. I think a viewer, whether sitting in a cinema, or in his own home, is entitled to better.