Blank Slate

I watched this movie when it came on TV this evening and being a sucker for B TV movies, I thought the concept was very interesting. The characters had a depth not usually found in this type of movie and the acting was above average. It was well paced and kept the story moving along. I thought the script was excellent with good subtle snippets of information for the viewer to absorb. Perhaps it was a little cheesy in places but this is one of the attractions of this type of movie. I actually thought it could make an interesting TV series. Well worth a rental if anyone gets the chance. Looking by the number of voters and the lack of reviews here on IMDb, it looks like very few have seen it, which is a shame.

This appeared on a streaming service that fills its slots for SOB (South Of Border) with orphaned B movies. This was obviously intended to be a series but, for reasons unknown, was evidently dropped. Too bad, the premise was fair and the pilot chapter interesting.

Even tho it reached me horribly dubbed in Spanish it managed to keep me on it from start to finish, albeit having to accept unbelievable situations, unfathomable performances due to dubbing worthy of a High School play and a Jamesbondish central character who can karate chop guys gaining 15 inches and 50 pounds on her.

The story is good, the development and execution too, but it did not arrest me, I was dispersed, I felt disinterest... Regular...

BLANK SLATE kinda intrigued me for years because it's among Eric Stoltz's most recent projects and since I hope to finish all his films, last March I finally saw it and while I didn't hated it that much I could see why it's a failed TV pilot (in other words, it could have generated a successful TV show but it was never picked up).

Anne Huston (Lisa Brenner) is an amnesiac that is sentenced to death row for a murder that she can't remember to having committed. However, just a few minutes before her execution Agent Miles McAvoy (Clancy Brown) arrives and gives Anne a second chance to be recruited in the secret experimental unit in the FBI's unsolved crimes division and have the final memories of murder victims implanted in her own brain. Anne is often accompanied by Sean Sullivan (Stoltz) but as she has to do an important assignment she is pursued by her own memories and all becomes difficult for her.

The idea was great and the acting nice by all. But I think that the reasons why it was never picked up as a TV show is because the plot was in some points hard to believe (like when Sullivan is first seen having a fight dressed like a hobo and after 2 minutes he is clean and dressed nicely, or when Anne's memories come to her mind while she is at work). But seen as just a TV movie it's entertaining but nothing more.

So this is what they call a 'backdoor pilot' in TV talk. It's not a movie as much as it is a setup for a prospective TV show. This is obvious from the opening credits, in which the main character fills us in on details that haven't happened yet (but which are about to) which will be important background for viewers of future episodes. The story does not conclude in this episode.

The whole thing's shot very TV as well, sort of 24-lite. And it's not done terribly well, either. The angles are often not very interesting, the camera moves are random and sometimes overstate unimportant details. The unsteady cam feels forced as a whole, and the camera man has a tendency to miss on his camera moves. Sound/music is competent but pretty standard fare for TV drama.

Some of the actors have obviously been doing bit TV parts so long they're bored of it. The "Scientist" character, Dr. Crick (Get it? GET IT?!) is especially notable for this specific kind of acting. You'll wonder by her third line if she's ever spoken this many lines on TV before. Sadly she's required to do some of the secondary plot's heavy lifting, so it's going to be a lot of declarative statements for us.

So it's not a very good TV pilot posing as a movie with poor technical skill, why bother writing a review? Well, the other review got me interested enough to watch it, and if you're interested enough to click "See all 2 reviews" I figured I might as well tell you what's good enough about it that I finished it.

The lead actress is interesting in a not-very-TV kind of way. You get the sense she's had a life of some kind. I don't know her from anywhere else, but after a shaky first scene, she acquits herself well in this role. Eric Stolz is good as the handler and while the 'mystery of the week' is handled sloppily and uninterestingly, the conspiracy-stuff is actually quite interesting. The premise is a bit misleading, but the secondary premise is far more interesting than the initial one.

OK, so it's got a lot of flaws and should be mediocre at best, but a couple of things elevated it a couple of notches above average. If you like amnesia stories, personality switching, or season-long mysteries you'll probably enjoy this and wish it went on to be a full series. Otherwise, you probably won't get past the first couple of scenes.