Keep Your Distance

The best thing about this movie is Christian Kane. I have seen several of his movies and I continue to be amazed by the depth and breadth of his acting. The fact Christian sings in this movie is an added bonus! If you're a fan of Christian Kane, this movie is worth your time.

If you're not a Christian Kane fan, don't waste your time. Watching Gil Bellows act is like watching paint dry. The other actors aren't much better.

The movie had potential but it fell short. If it wasn't for Christian, I would have given this movie a 1. In my opinion, he was the saving grace of this movie.

I was fortunate to catch this at a sneak preview in Los Angeles and was very nicely surprised. Pollard has created a sure-footed send-up of modern romance and what happens when devotion goes over the edge. Camera-work and settings around Kentucky were beautiful, creating a different spin from the constant romance-in-a-big-town-between-overeducated-professionals genre we all know too well.

Story splits its time between David (Gil Bellows of "Ally McBeal" & "Shawshank Redemption"), a popular (and married) local radio talk-show host and Melody (Jennifer Westfeldt of "Kissing Jessica Stein"), an attractive pharmaceutical saleswoman traveling through town to see her boyfriend, Sean (Christian Kane, "Angel" & "Friday Night Lights"). David meets Melody by chance after she humiliates Sean by turning down his very public marriage proposal. As a friendship develops between the two, we learn than Sean's not going to give up so easily on Melody and that David's perfect life as upstanding pillar of the community may not be what it seems...

Pollard deftly moves between romance, satire and unfolding mystery without ever letting his story run low on gas. The storyline is tight and the dialog is witty, funny and crisp. Realistic characters have to work around their warts, which creates a very funny commentary on marriage, dating and romantic obsession. Jennifer Westfeldt is particularly good at making a lot out of her neurotic beauty Melody, and she does look good here. Very nice use of multiple subplots and supporting characters (including "Mike Hammer" Stacy Keach and Elizabeth Pena of "Jacob's Ladder"). The story will keep you guessing until the last shot.

Good solid entertainment- keep an eye out for director Pollard in the future. 8/10

This film was a very pleasant surprise. I must say that I went in expecting much less than I got. It's quick-paced and fairly short, so it barely feels like you've spent any time in the theater at all. Nice, quick little thrill ride. And, the ending! Wow. Who would've ever guessed that... Well, you should definitely see it for yourself. It's wonderful how you walk away from this one rethinking how much you trust everyone! Friends, family, coworkers, everyday acquaintances. You may never look at your loved ones the same way again. I was up at the RIIFF in Providence and happened to catch this there. The acting, the music, the cinematography, the fitting bits of humor - all near perfect. I highly recommend checking it out if you have the chance. If nothing else, hopefully the DVD will be along soon enough!

I have a strong suspicion that many of the glowing reviews for this film come from shills. If not, then I'm baffled. As my friend said, "There went ninety minutes that I'll never get back."

The best part of the film is the title sequence, which was very slick and set the right suspenseful mood. After that, things went quickly downhill. The acting is workmanlike, the script is full of clumsy dialogue, and the direction is riddled with embarrassing clichés. (For instance, during the final showdown, which of course takes place in a dark house during a thunderstorm, we are treated to a flash of lightning suddenly revealing the silhouette of someone on the doorstep -- twice!)

"Keep Your Distance" tries to be a character-driven suspense film, but the problem is that the characters are insubstantial and unlikable and there is no suspense. I knew who the culprit was from the beginning, simply due to Ebert's "law of economy of characters," but I didn't know why. At the end of the film, I still didn't know why. The clues that we are given, when they are finally deciphered by the characters, turn out to be mostly irrelevant.

I am a slight fan of Christian Kane's, I saw him from the TV show Angel, so when I was looking for a movie, I noticed him on the cover and even though I wasn't familular with the actors, also I wasn't sure about the story, but I figured I should give it a shot. So I went ahead and rented it and just watched it tonite and over all, I'd say that it was a good attempt for a thriller, but it was pretty average.

Basically this radio host, David, has caught his wife cheating with another woman. Melody has just turned her boyfriend's, Sean, proposal down in public, but when Melody runs out to skip humiliation, she gets hit by a car and David helps her, so when he finds out about his wife, he drinks and gets thrown in jail, and to return the favor, Melody bails him out and they develop a friendship discovering that there might be people out to hurt them.

Keep Your Distance like I said was an average thriller that could've been better, but from what I'm reading, the director is still pretty new at movies, so I'm going to give him a chance, because this wasn't a bad movie at all. So if you come across it, you might want to check it out, you never know, you may love it or you may hate it, but just give it a shot.

5/10