Forfeit (2007)

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Depending on your mood this will either be a good little film or a complete time waster. The plot has a security guard planning a robbery and revenge against old friends and having everything complicated by his religious beliefs and his obsession with a televangelist. Okay small scale film probably wouldn't have shown up anywhere except Wayne Knight is in the cast in a small role as a boss at the armored car company. The twists, when they come, are good. The performances are fine. The trouble is that there seems not to be a translation of the passion the filmmakers felt that made them want to make the film. Its kind of dull and uninvolving, which is odd because the cast clearly cares. Try it depending on your mood.

When one reads reviews about this film, it could just as well be about a non kung fu action movie for all that is missing in the creative surplus that is bedazzling. First the best group of actors and casting I have ever seen who are all "unknowns" to me, except for a heavy set guard conspirator who plays it straight and does it well, too. The story line is unexpected and the "lead" has so many faces and is so calm and cool at once, and then a complete wacko. It works because we are not force fed a story line typically American, but the revelations do come back in flashbacks, in revelations which are accidental or cleverly edited. However they make it there, they work. Even the evangelist works whereas most of them are all so dumb and overdone.The film is going to be a sleeper and is going to be HUGE in France. It is very much like a combination of French directors and does not mess around with any of the modern icons who are running out of parts for DeNiro and Pacino playing devils.This is low budget and mesmerizing film making with not one bad actor. Too many young filmmakers who have no idea of the roots of films who try and be witty and forget what it takes to assemble this kind of involving production.

Frank, an ex-con, comes back trying to get back with his former girlfriend, Karen, who as it turns out, doesn't want any part of him. He has been following a television evangelist who seems as though is only preaching to him. From the start one figures there is something definitely wrong with this man as we witness him visiting Karen who is a prisoner herself now. The film then goes back to a few weeks before.Frank O'Neal has been hired by a an armored truck company that employs only former inmates. There is something shady with this firm, one realizes. Frank plots to rob them, and being canny enough, he figures a way to put the blame on everyone else including his boss. He wants to frame Karen as being the person that is really involved in the heist. Little does Frank know that Karen has a strong surprise in store for him as the film ends up.Director Andrew Shea, working on the screenplay by John Rafter Lee, delivers a film that gets the viewer involved. The film relies on Billy Burke, who plays Frank, as its main asset, and he does a good job with his character. There is also a chilling performance by Greg Itzin as the television charlatan that has captured Frank's imagination. Wayne Knight has a small part.

This is one of those rare "B" movies which has a complicated yet solid storyline accompanied by excellent acting. The filming looks like something you would see on daytime TV yet the storyline and acting is something you would expect from a well-known director and a much better funded production.Forfeit is not an action film nor a thriller it is a complicated psychological thriller about a white, devout Christian hell-bent (seriously hell-bent as he acknowledges the evil of his actions) on carrying out his vengeance for an decade old crime against him.The only complaint I have is that the storyline is based around the stereotype that devout Christian men are violent, irrational and delusional. While atheist/agnostics and non-practicing, pseudo Christians are the victims of their misguided passion. However that being said the film does not portray all Christian men as violent and delusional just the only one in the film.