COMPLIANCE (Craig Zobel, 2012)ChickWich
manager Sandra (Ann Dowd) is already on edge at the start of the work
day in COMPLIANCE. The previous night an employee left a freezer door
open, resulting in nearly $1500 in spoiled food and leaving the fast
food restaurant short on bacon and pickles. A secret shopper may be
visiting to assess how well the store is performing. Then comes a call
from a police officer.The
caller identifies himself as Officer Daniels (Pat Healy) and asks for
Sandra’s help. A woman has come to the police and is accusing a female
ChickWich employee of stealing money from her purse. The policeman
states that their surveillance unit also backs up the claim. Officer
Daniels requests Sandra’s assistance with the suspected thief until he
can arrive on the scene.Teenage
cashier Becky (Dreama Walker) fits the description of the guilty party,
so Sandra pulls her from her register and brings her into a back
office. Officer Daniels asks Sandra to search Becky’s pockets and take
Becky’s phone and purse. When that fails to turn up the stolen money,
he persuades Sandra to conduct a strip search and Becky to submit to it.
As he explains, it’s in Becky’s best interest. Either they can clear
up the matter of the alleged theft in the moment or Becky can be taken
downtown for processing and potentially spend the night in jail.The
strip search is also unsuccessful in producing evidence that Becky took
any money, but Officer Daniels is not willing to let the charge drop or
let Becky put her clothes back on. Still on the phone, he guides the
manager through how he’d like for her to detain Becky while Sandra
attends to her job over the next several hours.
If
the situation in COMPLIANCE sounds fishy, that’s because it is.
Writer-director Craig Zobel possesses something of a free pass in the
fact that the film is inspired by true events. No matter how
unbelievable the escalation of personal violation in the scenario may
seem, it sticks closely to the documented report of a specific incident
in which a man making a prank call convinced others to victimize an
innocent employee. (This was one of over 70 similar scams in 30
states.) That
COMPLIANCE has facts to support even the most outrageous actions cuts
both ways in terms of its success as drama. To its advantage, anyone
with foreknowledge of this story will be inclined to accept everything
at face value. Any other film trying to pass off some of the
developments as believable would face more viewer skepticism, yet
awareness of the truth in what’s being depicted drains COMPLIANCE of the
shock value it is trying to capitalize on. The film’s primary weakness
is in letting the facts do the heavy lifting in what can be little more
than a dramatized police report.A
better film would have dug into the psychological complexity behind the
decisions the characters make, especially the most implausible ones.
Nevertheless, COMPLIANCE functions as a fascinating and mortifying
glimpse at how readily and illogically people will submit to authority,
whether it’s law enforcement or a boss. From the outside looking in it
seems preposterous that a situation would get this out of hand, but
COMPLIANCE’s best scenes show how a series of small steps can get folks
to walk over the edge rather than requiring a single big jump. It also
demonstrates the perceptual leaps people will make when provided with
vague bits of information. Dowd excels at conveying the struggle of not
really wanting to go forward with what Sandra is asked to demand of
Becky but doing so anyway. After all, the man on the phone sounds
official and gives her the confidence to act in a way that she likely
wouldn’t if she took a couple moments to assess what is happening. Healy’s
performance is mostly in voiceover, making him like a devil on the
shoulder using firm speaking and the power of suggestion to convince
people to do what deep down they know they shouldn’t. Without setting
foot in that small back office he materializes a complicitous and
taunting presence that allows the unthinkable to be done. What people
do in COMPLIANCE is troubling. That it ultimately requires so little to
take them to that point is more disturbing.Grade: B-
THE INNKEEPERS (Ti West, 2011)
The
Yankee Pedlar Inn, first opened in 1891, prepares to shutter its doors
for good after one final weekend of accommodating guests in THE
INNKEEPERS. For these last days Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat
Healy), the two remaining employees, have moved in to keep each other
company while working twelve-hour shifts at the front desk and hunting
for ghosts rumored to walk the hotel’s halls. With a mother and child
and washed up actress Leanne Rease-Jones (Kelly McGillis) the only ones
checked in, they have plenty of time to search for the supernatural.
Luke
maintains a primitive website about The Yankee Pedlar Inn, which is
purported to be one of the most haunted hotels in New England. Its
notorious reputation stems from a story long ago of Madeline O’Malley, a
guest who hung herself after her fiancé stood her up on her wedding
day. Wishing to avoid bad publicity, the owners hid her body in the
wood cellar for three days. The scandal eventually came to light,
forcing the sale and long-term closure of the property and leading to
talk of Madeline haunting the inn.
Although
not up to the high standard of writer-director Ti West’s previous film
THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, THE INNKEEPERS is another often chilling
exercise in building mood and atmosphere. In contrast to many of his
contemporaries, West favors something that might be dubbed slow horror,
which relies on spinning spooky tales and employing long takes and wide
shots. West isn’t concerned so much with what he shows to raise the
tension but instead builds suggestibility. The pleasure is found in the
anticipation of something awful happening, not being jarred by specters
popping out of unsuspected places. Compared to films with more
aggressive jolt delivery systems, West wrings greater suspense out of
otherwise banal scenes of Claire inspecting a noise coming from the
cellar and sitting in an empty room while listening over headphones to
the shotgun microphone connected to a tape recorder.
When
THE INNKEEPERS does include jump moments, they’re usually played for
laughs. It is an uncommonly funny film within the framework of
traditional horror, but it feels appropriate considering the
lighthearted tone foregrounded in Claire and Luke’s complementary work
relationship and easygoing friendship. Paxton and Healy exhibit
pleasing chemistry as their characters try to pass the uneventful hours
on the job. While Claire is the one sensed to be in the most danger,
Paxton turns in a delightful comedic performance rooted in her posture
and overall comportment. Her awkwardness witnessed in interactions with
guests and hilariously dragging trash to the dumpster is what makes her
so endearing and the most vulnerable to whatever malevolent forces may
be present.
At
the core of THE INNKEEPERS is the question of if it is preferable to be
haunted by ghosts or the prospect of a dead end future. Both fears are
potentially magnified within one’s mind rather than being tangible
threats and are likely to become overwhelming if fixated on. The damage
these worries cause are proportional to how suggestible one is to
accepting them as fate. It’s easy to be frightened of the invisible or
interpret random events as menacing if uncertainty is automatically
assigned negative attributes.
Reflecting
on the thematic thrust of THE INNKEEPERS helps to compensate for a
generally lackluster ending that satisfies more as a metaphor than a
conclusion to the story. The apprehension that sends a surge of nervous
energy through the lengthy build-up dissipates when an answer, no
matter how terrible it might be, can’t meet expectations. That minor
disappointment aside, West again shows that he’s one of the more
exciting filmmakers working in the genre.
Grade: B
