Closing Escrow

The All-American dream of home ownership comes in for some gentle ribbing in "Closing Escrow," a pseudo-documentary written and directed by Armen Kaprelian and Kent G. Llewellyn. The film follows three quirky couples and their equally zany realtors as they endure the trials and tribulations of buying and selling a home.

In all honesty, it takes awhile for "Closing Escrow" to work its way into the audience's affections. The humor, in the early stages, comes across as overly broad and arch, and the movie feels too derivative of all those Christopher Guest films like "Waiting For Guffman," "Best in Show" and "A Mighty Wind." to be entirely original. Yet, long about the midway point of the story, the concept begins to pay off and the movie glides smoothly to its conclusion. Moreover, the actors elevate the humor with their marvelously deadpan performances and impeccable sense of timing.

"Closing Escrow" is no barnburner of a comedy, but it does succeed in providing us with a decent number of good-hearted and good-natured laughs by the time it's over - not too shabby an accomplishment for any comedy these days.

When I was invited to a rough cut screening of "Closing Escrow," I had no idea how much I was going to enjoy watching real estate agents make fools of themselves. As a veteran real estate agent for almost 20 years, I thought I had seen it all. However, Armen Kaprelian's movie, "Closing Escrow," had me laughing at the absurdities of my business. Much of the dialogue was improvised and two actors deserve mention here. Wendy McLendon-Covey from "Reno 911" did a stand out job of playing the uptight, politically correct agent, Hillary, who is working with an African American couple. Also, Bruce Thomas whom my daughters adored in "Legally Blonde" was relatable in his role of working with neighbors who couldn't make up their minds about what they wanted in a house. "Closing Escrow" is sure to have audiences laughing out loud at the practices of some unconventional Realtors. I found it comparable to other "mockumentaries" like "Best in Show" and "A Mighty Wind."

You'd be forgiven if, while watching Closing Escrow, you thought you were watching a documentary instead of an actual feature film. This award-winning independent comedy takes a look at the lives of three married couples and their real estate agents during their search for the perfect home. Filmed in the same style as some of your favourite reality television shows (live-action and pre-filmed interview segments), this film convincingly portrays the struggle between buyer and seller when it comes to presenting and purchasing real estate property. What are the buyers looking for? What kind of property would best suit their needs? Does the agent fully comprehend the importance of keeping within their client's budget? And, something we can all relate to, how do homeowners cope with the incessant train of people walking through their homes during a showing or open house?

Tom (Andrew Friedman) and his wife, Dawn (Patty Wortham), are looking for their dream property. Tom is a gentle, timid, somewhat weedy man who left his first wife to marry the whimsical, sometimes genuinely frightening possessed hippie Dawn. When we meet this couple, they are living in Tom's old house, which he shared with his previous wife. Dawn insists that they find a place of their own, free from the shackles of Tom's "past mistakes." The two of them hire real estate agent Richard (Ryan Smith) who employs the following strategy to keep purchasing prices down for his clients: carry a chainsaw with you to all home showings and begin destroying walls and floors, countertops, and mantelpieces in the hopes that the existing homeowners will cut $50,000 off their asking price. Despite his clients' horror, Richard stands by his unique method of price reduction and wreaks havoc in every listed home he visits with Tom and Dawn.

Bobby (Cedric Yarbrough) and his wife, Tamika (April Barnett), currently occupying a small apartment in the city, are on the hunt for a trendy, upmarket downtown loft that will both impress their lawyer friends and allow the two of them to spread out and live among high-vaulted ceilings and industrial-style building features. They hire elitist realtor Hillary (Wendi McLendon-Covey) to find them their perfect city abode but stress that, despite how financially successful the two of them are, they have a budget in mind and would very much like to stick to it. Hillary automatically sees dollar signs and begins taking Bobby and Tamika to beautiful, spacious city lofts that are lovely, but that the couple cannot afford. Hillary is driven to make a sale, but things go horribly wrong when Bobby and Tamika reveal that they are expecting a baby. Because of the new addition to the family, the couple's plans for a home have changed. The couple are now looking for a charming house in suburbia, the bane of Hillary's existence. A happy camper she is not. Not only has her clients' budget gone down, but she will also have to begin showing them lifeless, generic bungalows located on plots of land so close together that you can see into your neighbours' houses just by gazing out your dining room windows.

Allen (Rob Brownstein) is a successful accountant and his wife, Mary (Colleen Crabtree), is an avid scrapbooker. They have one pre-teen daughter and are looking for a larger home to raise their little family in. Upon first glance, Allen is quite unassuming and content with his lot in life. But when he hires neighbour Peter (Bruce Thomas) as his and his wife's realtor and begins spending more and more time with him, Allen begins coveting everything Peter has â€" from electronically controlled home lighting to the customized dance room Peter built for his daughter in an upstairs spare bedroom. It is beginning to look impossible for Peter to find Allen and Mary the home of their dreams because Allen keeps changing his mind about what he wants. First he wants a pool, then he wants a bigger lawn, a customized dance room just like his neighbour has, a bigger floor plan, and perhaps even a sewing and crafts room for his beloved wife. Real estate agent Peter cannot keep up and finally explains to Allen that, if he cannot stick to one plan, he and Mary will never find their next home.

The final third of the film brings all three couples and their realtors together when they casually meet at an open house. If you're a realtor or an experienced buyer and homeowner yourself, I bet you know what's coming next! Yes, you guessed it. After a long and fruitless search, all three couples are interested in submitting an offer for the home they're all currently traipsing through. Automatically, the audience understands that because there are three couples bidding on the same home, each one will have to offer more than the asking price in order to gain a foothold and come out the victors. Yes, we understand that, but the characters in the film have a harder time coming to terms with the fact that not only will they have to go over their set budget, but that someone else has their eye on what has become their dream home.

The situation quickly grows tense and the audience is left wondering who will ultimately win the property. If I said the film's final frames weren't anxiety-inducing, I'd be lying. It's no wonder I ruined my pristine manicure while sitting through the last twenty minutes of Closing Escrow. I couldn't stop biting my nails! Don't worry; I'm not about to spoil the ending for you here. I'd much rather have you watch it and see how it all unfolds in real time yourself.

This movie was hilarious. It pokes fun at every aspect of the house-buying-with-realtor process. The insane details of the buyers' lives that realtors use to pretend they are their "best friends" added to the "reality" of it.

I can't rate the movie as a 10, because it's not a "Little Miss Sunshine" or "Sideways," but it is in that vein, and it had me laughing out loud many times.

It seems that a lot of people commenting negatively on it here just didn't get it. Perhaps they have not negotiated the house-buying milieu or just a case of different strokes for different folks. All humour does not appeal to all people. I know a few realtors and have been through the maze a few times in the States, so I connected with it.

Hilarious.

The bad news is they keep on repeating them over and over and over and over again until they are no longer funny. At 93 minutes, it feels like it ran 186 minutes.

I don't enjoy bad mouthing a film. These people, obviously, are trying. But with so many "10" votes and comparing it to "Best In Show"; I felt I had to warn people.

The chances are very good you won't enjoy this film. Some of the situations are so forced as to be embarrassing. Maybe a better group of actors could have hidden the flaws. Or perhaps the director could have been less self-indulgence. Or perhaps the money people could have asked for an actual script. Production value is almost nil. Photography is flat. Costumes are off-the-rack Wal-Mart. It has the feel of a quickie vanity project shot on digital video Direct-to-DVD.

As a comedy/satire, it's not that it's bad...it just not funny. And whatever people say, funny is important. This tedious film is not.