The Privileged

This is a riveting, engaging thriller with elements of a psychological drama mixed with plenty of blood and violence and some mild social commentary about class and, yes, privilege. Much of the movie has a stage play feel about it. Kinetic at times, but also with a fair amount of smart dialog.

Here's the story...

Richard Hunter (Joshua Close) is a young lawyer with a bright future. But as the movie opens we learn that he has just made a costly mistake in a civil case by deciding not to introduce evidence that, it's implied, was gathered illegally and would harm others. An overconfident, virtuous Richard thought he could win the case without the dodgy dossier.

Result: his boss, Preston Westwood (Sam Trammel), a senior partner in the law firm, basically fires him by phone on a late Friday afternoon. It seems the other partners and the client are furious. But Richard convinces Preston to invite him and his pregnant wife Tara (Lynn Roessler) up to his "cottage" (most of us would call it a luxurious, large lake home) in the north of Ontario so that Richard can plead to be kept on.

Preston is quite obnoxious as an overbearing, materialistic showoff, unethical to the core. His wife, Julia (Laura Harris) is a socialite and snob who may have a drinking problem and is not averse to flirting with the much younger Richard.

Things accelerate and go downhill from there. There is a near wife-swap incident fueled by Merlot and potent weed. That's interrupted by a late night visit from a local family that Preston's had a running feud with. Things heat up from there. Violence ensues. Shotguns, strangulation, blunt force trauma, even propane, gasoline, arrows, a jar of caviar, and drowning are all in the bloody mix. Great fun for those who like this sort of stuff. And much like a teen slasher movie, the question is "who will get it next?"

As the movie progresses, we see that Richard is not the brave saint he thinks he is. He's a weak-willed, vacillating, very beta male who is resentful of his middle class roots and not averse to setting aside what principles he thinks he may hold. Nor is Tara so pure. No doubt thinking of possible prison time, she reluctantly goes along with a cover-up at least for a while. And we see further evidence that Preston and Julia are just garden variety sociopaths.

Now, there are a number of implausibilities in the movie, but they're not fatal. A reasonable viewer can come up with some explanations. And the ending is, for some reviewers here, ambiguous. I thought it straight forward though.

All in all, great fun. A good Friday night movie. Nothing too challenging after a hard day of work.

The plot reads well. Lawyers, class systems and land rights culminating in a big dispute and then death. Sadly the plot isn't acted out or crafted so well. The film is mundane, the actors are unknown relatively and as usual the women just do what the big bad men say because "Women are hysterical" and big bad guy "Preston will take care of everything". Which may have worked in the 90s although a film made then would have tried to captivate an audience better. This is boring drivel with sexist and lazy writing at best. Does a person get shot? Yes and you wish it were the rich douche bag Preston well atleast I did because hes an awful selfish elite sexist bastard. So one couple is caught up in this madness and really should have left but Richard wanted to stay when really him and his wife Tara should have never gone there to begin with.

I'm pretty simple, I guess. It moved along at a decent pace, not too violent, I've seen worse. I'm a crime and law fanatic so I liked the legal predicament here. It was good. I've seen better but it's not easy to find outstanding, so I liked this. And I must say Canada has a lot of great talent!

I'm pretty simple, I guess. It moved along at a decent pace, not too violent, I've seen worse. I'm a crime and law fanatic so I liked the legal predicament here. It was good. I've seen better but it's not easy to find outstanding, so I liked this. And I must say Canada has a lot of great talent! I recommend it.

I enjoyed this Canadian film about a lawyer, Richard, who has messed up and likely to lose a major client who is invited to visit his boss, Preston, and his wife at their island retreat with his wife, in an attempt to resolve the situation and save his job. As soon as he arrives on the island his boss who has come to meet him is in an angry confrontation with a local man. We soon learn that a local family, the Lynley's, were in financial difficulties and Preston had acquired their land for nothing. In the evening while enjoying food, wine and wife swapping their is a knock at the door and this is where the trouble escalates. The Lynley's are set on revenge for the land grab, so clearly there will be some violence soon. While not a suspensful film it moves along at pace, so never becomes boring and I was never quite sure how it would end.

This movie is awful, I wasted an hour and half with horrible acting, unbelievable plot and situations. Had a viewer not read the details, nothing about this movie synced up. The whole dinner scene, totally ridiculous! There was just so many holes in the plot. Sam Trammell, shame on you. We expect more, I guess I do have spoiler alert, in no way shape or fashion does this movie hit the mark. I debated on 1 or 2 stars but the ONLY thing about this movie worth watching for is the scenery- I even tried to Google where it was filmed as well as where it was supposed to take place. Good luck tbis movie is so bad and there is another movie with same title. WASTE OF TIME, this review, yeah , there is a 600 minimum character limit. I hope viewers read this so they don't waste the time.