Klepto

"Emily" (Meredith Bishop) is a young woman who suffers from a mental illness known as kleptomania which causes her to steal merchandise from stores on a regular basis. Having been caught previously, she is forced to perform community service as her punishment. She also sees a psychologist to help her try to overcome her condition. Then, as luck would have it, she is observed preparing for a heist by a department store security guard named "Nick" (Jsu Garcia), who becomes quite intrigued with her. Unfortunately, Nick has his own problems, and it soon appears that any relationship between them is fraught with difficulties. Now, rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this turned out to be a satisfactory film by and large. Having said that, I have to say that even though this movie is billed as a comedy, I personally didn't see much humor in it. If anything, I would probably consider it to be more of a crime-drama than anything else. In any case, I liked the movie and I rate it as slightly above average.

I had no idea what to expect going into "Klepto" --- it's one of gillions of low-fi indie films that can be seen for the cost of a Netflix membership and a Web-ready device.

I knew it involved a shoplifter and a disgruntled security guard, so the permutations were going from the start.

I didn't expect the shoplifter, played with a marvelously wizened-sense of "been-there-done-that" by Meredith Bishop, to also be an OCD head case with abandonment issues. I didn't expect her mother to be played by the superb Leigh Taylor-Young, whose specialty seems to be making otherwise small character roles jump from the screen.

In short, the characterizations and acting are what really drives this film. No one is really as simple as you expect them to be...it's not a "this is the good guy and this is the bad guy" type of film. And even though the story kind of went down the alley I thought it would, it still threw me in a very nice way.

If you like well-thought out indie pics, give Klepto a watch. It's 82 minute run-time will fly by.

I've only seen Meredith Bishop in this, had never heard of her, or of Klepto before. But I have to say, she is cute here. It's a well acted movie, quite ambient in feel, with a mostly sunny disposition. I own Klepto, mainly because I like the atmosphere, and partly for Meredith's character, which is played realistically, and is pretty down to earth.

A nice and quite simple indie. Happy to have discovered it.

In Los Angeles, Emily Brown (Meredith Bishop) is a kleptomaniac and addicted in pills that misses her father and is having therapy sessions trying to resolve her compulsion. She has a record in the police for shoplifting, and her mother Teresa (Leigh Taylor-Young) is a compulsive shopper. The security guard Nick (Jsu Garcia) of the Bernstein's department store sees Emily through a camera and becomes fascinated for her. When Nick gets in trouble dealing ecstasy, he presses Emily to help him in a robber of Bernstein.

"Klepto" is a low budget movie, with an attractive story and good performances. Emily Brown is a shoplifter but the viewer feels sympathy for her nice character. Even the small time crook Nick is a sympathetic character. The conclusion is not romantic but fits perfectly to the story. In the end, "Klepto" is a good entertainment. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Clepto"

The premise of the film is a good one...girl gets her jollies from stealing stuff, and she ends up in a bit of trouble when a security officer notices her. Unfortunately, the film drops the girl's journey at this point and focuses on a myriad of issues that it will drop later, leaving you asking "Why?" at the climax rather than caring about what is happening.

The film looks pretty good on-screen...I wish they had used some of their time in writing a decent script, and not just in the editing bay. Little of the dialouge is believable, and instances that bring people together are better written in soap operas than they were here. The film invests in characters it throws to the wolves later, making you wonder why you even watched the life of this person. Silly tricks start subplots, and dialouge rather than action end them. The big moment in the film is something you figure out as soon as the crisis is introduced.

I saw the trailer after I saw this film, and it reinforced my thought that the idea behind the film is intriguing. The log line on this film is a good one...but the film itself doesn't stick with it. If you're going to make a film about a girl who is addicted to stealing, make it about that girl. Don't use the middle of the film to take me five other places and then later come back to this girl and expect me to care. And if you're going to write a film with a female protagonist, give us a character that is written as a person and not as a guy's idea of what a girl is/should be.