Rating: C+
Dir: Michael Sarrow
Star: Rey Goyos, Michael Teh, Jennifer Prediger, Joey Dean
Though a couple of years old, this has perhaps acquired a certain additional resonance in the wake of the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare. For the protagonist here will not be checking “Highly satisfied” om his insurance customer survey form either. It’s Rico Allende (Goyos), a roofer who is now afflicted with a series of ailments in the area of his heart and lungs. To figure out the problem, he needs a battery of expensive tests, for which his insurance will not pay. Funding these will therefore require him to come up with close to a quarter of a million dollars, an amount he does not come anywhere close to having. Rico does have a plan, however.
He tracks down Terry Tanner (Teh), the advertising executive behind a particularly impressive advert for the insurance company, and forces his way into Terry Tanner’s apartment at gunpoint, to make a proposal. Tanner is requested to use his marketing and PR skills to create a crowdfunding page for his visitor, which will raise the necessary amount in three days. If it doesn’t… Well, Rico might not be the only one in desperate need of medical attention. The resulting movie takes place almost entirely in the apartment, and skews very heavily toward the dialogue-driven. Clearly, the makers had a limited amount of resources, and cut their cloth accordingly. It feels like it could be an adaptation of a two-man play.
That said, it never looks or sounds cheap. The photography is crisp (there is some nice composition, such as top), and the audio similarly avoids the tinny quality often found on lower budget productions. The key question is more, whether you want to spend time in the company of these two as they talk to each other. Because that’s basically what you have for an hour and a half, except for a brief tussle over Rico’s weapon. Certainly, the power dynamic does shift over the running time, and where you are at the end is not where you were at the beginning, for either man. It’s clear what Rico’s goals and motivations are; harder to say the same for Terry, who appears to adjust his attitude, chameleon-like, depending on the situation.
Outside of a brief interruption by a neighbour, drawn by a gunshot, there isn’t much in the way of tension. That might end up capping the potential impact, and given the single location, I expected a greater sense of claustrophobia. Maybe it’s because I was left feeling somewhat sympathetic to both men. It’s not as if Terry did much to justify the home invasion – and in their discussions, both sides make somewhat good points. The movie does eventually pick a side: doing so earlier and committing fully to its cause might have worked better. On the other hand, it is a topic without easy solutions, and offering one would be a questionable conclusion. If you’re in the mood for dialogue-driven drama about social issues, this will scratch the itch.
The film is available now on Tubi, and other streaming services.