Piccoli delitti tra amici

Despite the fact that this was a Made-For-TV movie (and an obvious one at that: ie., cheap looking), CLASS WARFARE left me wishing I could get my money back, and considering this lame production was partially funded through Canadian dollars, I might just be entitled.

What made me sit through it in the first place was seeing actress Lindsey McKeon, who I've watched for the last couple years in her role as "goody-goody" Mara Lewis on the soap-opera GUIDING LIGHT, taking a turn at playing "the bad girl" for a change.

Surprisingly she does quite well, as Kristen, a spoiled rich-b*tch who suddenly finds herself dirt-poor, but with a conniving streak, and a twist of fate, that will possibly change her fortunes back around. The twist of fate is provided in the character of Richard (Robin Dunne), a socially-radical outcast who discovers that he has just gone from having nothing to winning $23 million on a lottery ticket. Now, put Richard, Kristen, her jock-boyfriend Jason (Wade Carpenter), and their camcorder-obsessed mutual buddy Graham (Dave McGowan) together for the weekend in a remote cabin, cut off from the world by storms, and just guess what unfolds.

The film suffers from congesting both the story and characters'personas and motives too much. Everyone is pretty one-dimensional and it doesn't take a rocket-scientist to figure out that some things, and some people, are going to go very bad, very quickly. I don't think this is that original a plot and it doesn't go out of it's way to make itself anything more. The acting is OK, McKeon is spot-on as the manipulative female lead, and Dunne is very good, perhaps a little too good at times, but no one else is worth writing home about. The only other real credit I can give the film is the one twist I didn't see coming towards the end (not the very end though, that one is so obvious it hurts). Regardless, I sat through all of it and lived to tell the tale so I can't say it was a complete write-off.

4/10. A "something-to-watch-when-nothing-else-is-on" type movie.

A few wealthy high school seniors in the Seattle area take a three-day weekend break at a remote vacation home on Puget Sound in which they bring along an ungreedy idealist (Robin Dunne). The materialistic president of their class (Lindsey McKeon) naturally clashes with him until it's discovered that he's won the lottery.

"Class Warfare" (2001) takes the cabin-in-the-woods scenario and adds the interesting conflict of selfless generosity vs. Selfish avarice. There's a horror element in the Hitchcockian sense, but don't look for an eye-rolling slayer with a mask and a butcher knife.

Similar flicks include "Humongous" (1982), "Out of Control" (1984), "April Fool's Day" (1986) and "American Gothic" (1987). While the set-up of each is comparable, the antagonists/threat are all different. Needless to say, if you like these, you'll likely appreciate what this one has to offer.

Lindsey McKeon is certainly alluring, but her character (Kristen) is such a manipulative money-obsessed biyatch, it's hard to warm up to her. Also on the feminine front is Kiele Sanchez as Amber.

While this debuted on cable (USA Network), it has a bigger budget than the typical 'B' horror/thriller. For instance, the isolated vacation home is awesome and the Great Northwest scenery is to die for. Then there's a fairly involved sequence downtown in the last act, which I bring up because it costs moolah to shoot in the city (permits, etc.). Meanwhile the no-name actors all rise to the challenge with convincing portrayals (also including Wade Carpenter as Jason and Dave McGowan as Graham).

The film runs 1 hour,36 minutes, and was shot in the area of Vancouver, British Columbia.

GRADE: B.

STRENGTHS: good performance from the lead actress, a few suspenseful moments, one or two twists that I didn't see coming, and a satisfying enough resolution to the central conflict

WEAKNESSES: horrible music, dumb ending, one-dimensional characters, some corny dialogue, some choices that didn't make sense.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: This movie feels very dated, like an edgy Disney channel original movie. It's an interesting premise though, but one that I feel could've been executed so much better if the writing was stronger. This is George Finch's only screenwriting credit so I don't know how seasoned of a writer he is as information on him is scarce if not nonexistent. But this film doesn't stand out in any way. It's just okay.

The actors seemed to be pretty well cast, and the plot twists were good. :) The ending is probably a little "too pat", but hey, at least there's justice in the world. And at the end there's a kind of revelation about how it all got started. ;)

As a native to British Columbia, I want to say again how amusing it is that the movie was set in Washington state, but the whole film was done in Vancouver and environs, as well as having the Government of Canada logo prominently displayed in the closing credits as being a grantor of money for the film project. *grin*

A proof that it's not necessary for a movie to have a deep many-layered story and other sophisticated elements to be a good movie. Even if the story could be expanded in many directions, especially in more sociological way (people lust for money) it seems that it's perfect just the way it is. Through many sudden changes it takes the spectator to the end without any unnecessary complications and without letting the spectator taking the eyes of the screen.

But the acting for me isn't so good. With the exception of Lindsey McKeon the others were average or even worst. In some scenes they just empty-stared in front of themselves. For exception of Lindsey which was more convincing. It's a really simple movie for just laying back and enjoying.

7/10