Treed Murray (2001)

Truly Dreadful Film

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Treed Murray is one of those films that you'll either love or loathe depending on your preferences. It's very character-driven and surprisingly psychological in nature, exploring the parallels and unexpected commonalities between a wealthy family-man, and a gang of young hoodlums who just happen to cross paths with him when he mildly injures one of them (without meaning to of course). They chase him up a tree, and the rest is history. These bad seeds drag the poor guy through his worst nightmares, including a young addict girl named Kelly (Jessica Greco from 'Welcome to Dead House') framing him for cheating on his wife and thus causing his already dysfunctional marriage to die that very night. However Murray finds that he's less than the innocent victim, and he begins to connect with the gang, realizing that they've all had their past traumas and that they all have friends and family even if they don't always display the best behaviour or judgment.Don't be put off by the idea of the drama though, because this film has a lot of comedy, too. We've got everything from a delusional homeless man (Julian Richings from 'Patch Town' and 'Hard Core Logo') thinking that the kids climbing up the tree are angels, to the gang's hilarious attempt to get Murray to say sorry. I honestly can't think of any bad qualities that 'Treed Murray' even has. It has some profanity but not to the point of being vulgar or obnoxious. Its acting is amazing. The soundtrack is subtle and neither invasive nor annoying. The story in and of itself is definitely original, too. All in all this is a classic of not only Canadian cinema, but also of the Nineties, and it has a distinct 1990's vibe that resonates throughout, yet it isn't outdated or "old" in the slightest. Excellent film, and one that everyone should see at least once.

When I read a synopsis of the movie before watching it, I was expecting it to be silly and light - I mean, a story about a guy ambushed in a tree by some kids can't be serious, can it? But it was nothing like I expected. This must be the cheapest thriller with the most mundane setting and characters in the history, but somehow it manages to provide with more adrenaline than most of the "guns and explosions" kind of movies. All the characters are both lovable and hatable, so you don't just root for a "good guy", you worry about all of them.I strongly recommend it even for those who don't really care for dramas and thrillers (I'm one of those people).

A man named Murray gets into an altercation with a gang after getting lost in a park. The gang then chases him and Murray is forced to hide in a tree. Of course it doesn't take the gang longer than a minute to find him hiding up there (and thankfully it didn't take them longer... that would've made for a poor movie). This is how Treed Murray begins. The rest of the movie takes place over the course of one night, with Murray hiding in the tree, and the gang waiting, taunting, intimidating, and threatening him from down on the ground.Of course Treed Murray isn't as simple or basic as the plot may lead you to believe. At only 90 minutes long, it manages to be more intriguing, fascinating and brilliant than any movie I think I've seen in the past year. The dialogue, which makes up 95% of the film, is more than enough to carry the entire movie on it's own. On top of that there are amazing performances from all the actors. David Hewlett, who was the best thing about the Canadian show Traders, is in almost every scene as the main character, Murray. He brings so much to the movie and his character. At every point in the movie you sympathize with him, despite his character being a bit of a low life. It seemed like every other scene had some new revelation about Murray that gives you good reason to hate him, yet Hewlett still makes him a likeable guy somehow. If Treed Murray can get as much great exposure as one of Hewlett's earlier movies CUBE got, he could become one of Canada's next big acting exports.But as brilliant as David Hewlett was in Treed Murray, myself and everyone else who watched it with me thought he was upstaged by Cle Bennett, who plays the gang leader Shark. Bennett is powerful and charismatic, an odd thing for a young and fairly inexperienced actor. One of the questions brought up in the story is why Shark is the leader, and why he makes all the decisions for the rest of the gang. I'm thinking if I knew someone like him, I'd probably do whatever he said too. I hope there's a Director out there looking to hire Bennett, because he has such star potential.In the end what really works about Treed Murray is it's realism and character development. Even though Murray is the hero of the film, he has many flaws. And even though all the gang members would be clear cut villains in a typical American movie, here they have several redeemable qualities. I loved that all the characters had interesting and honest things to say. Despite the fact they're trying to kill a guy for no reason, I found myself agreeing with so much that they said.Treed Murray is one of those rare movies that you not only can't turn off once it begins, but you can also watch over and over and over again. I give it 10 out of 10. If I was allowed to give it anything higher, I would. I LOVE this movie.

While this movie seems to revolve around characters and situations that are cliche and perhaps more based on American media archetypes than reality, Treed Murray nevertheless turns out to be a thought-provoking examination of issues relevant to today's times.Growing up watching the TV series Degrassi Junior High, we always used to joke that for a show noted for its "reality" they sure did a remarkable job of overlaying every possible teen calamity on a very small group of characters. This movie can be accused of a similar projection. However, perhaps in 90 minutes of film this sort of license may be not only allowable, but necessary.Overall, this is a very worthwhile, entertaining and interesting film, that manages to stand quite apart from those movies from which its characters have been lifted.