Surveillance
Directed by: Jennifer Lynch
Written by: Jennifer Lynch and Kent Harper
Starring: Julia Ormond, Bill Pullman, Pell James, Ryan Simpkins, Kent Harper
Rated: R for strong bloody violence, pervasive language, some drug use and a scene of aberrant sexuality.
Parental Notes: The MPAA’s rating notes are accurate. This is not a film for kids. At all.
There’s a certain rough-edged charm to independent thriller films. They often avoid the cliches mainstream filmmakers embrace, and thus aren’t always predictable. “Surveillance,” the first film from Jennifer Lynch since 1993’s “Boxing Helena,” is odd, violent, and ultimately not about what it seems.
The film opens with a pair of sadistic killers beating a man to death as his wife flees the scene, then running her down with their car. We then cut to some time later, as a pair of FBI agents enter the local police station to take over the investigation. They’ve been tracking the killers for some time, it appears, and want to interrogate the three witnesses to the latest killing, a roadside massacre.
The agents, Halloway (Bill Pullman) and Anderson (Julia Ormond) are a bit punchy, as one might expect from folks working a case like this one. The witnesses are as different as can be — there’s Bobbi (Pell James), a strung-out drug addict; Stephanie (Ryan Simpkins), an eight-year-old who’s holding together better than most of the adults around her; and Officer Jack Bennet (Kent Harper), a local cop who’s lost his partner to these killers and is determined to see justice done.
The agents split the three witnesses up and begin interrogating them, Halloway watching via closed-circuit televisions as Anderson, the police Captain (Michael Ironsides), and two of the other police officers conduct the interrogations. As we listen to the witnesses’ stories and watch their flashbacks, it becomes clear that nobody is telling the whole truth. Everyone is hiding something, and some folks’ secrets are more depraved than others.
The performances are unusual but if Lynch was doing what I think she was, they’re spot-on. There are long sequences where not much happens — they let us learn more about the people in the story, but don’t move the plot forward. Depending on how you like your movies, this either adds tension or adds boredom. There’s a twist which is telegraphed heavily — and that’s kind of the point. The film works whether you spot the twist or not, because the fact that the clues are right there and nobody sees them is important. The only person who puts all the pieces together is little Stephanie, and even she takes a while to figure it out.
“Surveillance” is not a film for folks looking for a straightforward thriller. It’s gruesome and unpleasant in places (almost unwatchable in a couple places, if you have a weak stomach) and comes together oddly. But it does gel, in its quirky, strange way. Lynch has come far in her film-less years since “Boxing Helena.” If you’re looking for something unusual, something that will take your expectations and tweak them — sometimes playfully, sometimes cruelly — “Surveillance” should do the trick.