Concealment (2001)

Posted on Dec 12, 2001 under Action-suspense |

Written, produced, and directed by David Stewart
Starring
- Melissa Desper
- David Stewart
- Jason Wauer
- David Harscheid
- Essence Anderson

Normally, what you see above is a certain recipe for disaster: A single person writing, producing, and directing movie in which is is also the main lead. (And editing, a credit I rarely list.) It just screams, “Vanity project! I want to star in a movie, and no one will hire me, so I’ll make myself a movie star!” Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case here; rather than self-aggrandizement, David Stewart seems to have had storytelling as his goal. It may not be completely successful, but it is watchable, and parts stand out has having more skill and value than your standard paper-route-budget video.

As befits a movie about lies, double-crosses and, well, concealment, we begin with scenes that don’t actually tell us what the hell is going on, though we do get hints. In particular, two young fellas have stepped in deep doo-doo with a mean old “businessman” named Francis (David Harscheid), doo-doo which apparently involves the disappearance of a hefty wad of cash. Francis means to get it back, no matter how many digits other people have to lose.

First Minimalist Bank of Virginia.

The object of his question, a big old Reebok bag, is in the hands of a young woman going by the name of Pia (Melissa Desper), currently on the run in Virginia. Her plan? To lie low, basically. (At least, if she had any further strategy it never showed.)

There are two wrenches thrown into this anonymity scheme, though. The first is her apparent addiction to a website called Chat-World.com (don’t bother — the domain is registered, but it’s a blank page), which is probably not a good idea for someone trying to establish a new identity.

The second is a chance encounter with Brad (David Stewart), a tree-cutter by trade, with whom she hits it off immediately. I mean, immediately: The two of them are walking down the sidewalk in opposite directions, and then they stop facing each other and start talking — what’s your name, where you from, what do you do, etc. I’ve heard of love at first sight, but this goes way beyond my suspension of disbelief; I mean,couldn’t we even contrive a cutesy meeting of some sort?

“Wow, this Cold Fusion guy is really on the ball!”

In any event, they really appreciate each other’s company, and Young Love ensues (most scenes of which are pretty good; Desper and Stewart have a definite chemistry when trying to be charming and witty and caring and all those extra-credit things we do when courting). And life seems rosy, at least for about three months.

During that time, though, Francis hasn’t been idle; he’s got Pia’s old computer that she left behind when she cleared out (including her mysteriously burnt-out modem), so he knows more about her than she’d probably want him to know.

The other complication is that, as much as Brad enjoys both the cute courtship stuff and the (off-screen) hot monkey love, he’s tired of having a relationship with a complete mystery woman, and that one-line disclaimer of “having a past she wants to forget” is no longer cutting it.

And it’s about at this point that Francis finds Pia through her Chat-World.com browsing and sends his many goons after her.

“Don’t mess with me, kid — I’m the meanest bastard in my rest home!”

What follows, as Pia runs to Brad for help and explains her accidental involvement in the whole matter, includes some surprisingly good fight choreography (notable among the goons is Eric Thornett, who played the kung fu-fighting Kevin Spacey clone in Lethal Force). Plus some gunfighting, beatings, and general whupass until, ultimately, who gets to own the Reebok bag is settled permanently.

as I mentioned, there are a number of good scenes in here. Stewart was content to play a “hero by default,” forced to help defend the woman he loves by strength of wit. Francis, the tough-as-nails senior citizen, is believably hard-assed, and I’d love to see him show up in more micro-budget projects. Desper is similarly competent, though she has more scenes which require a greater level of panic than she manages to convey.

There are also some clever technological workarounds for elements that would otherwise be budget-hampering, such as a common use of greenscreens (for example, to supply the background to scenes taking place in moving vehicles); the matting isn’t perfect, but it’s still a luxury that would have been beyond the means of a micro-budget filmmaker just a few short years ago.

Isn’t there a joke about bringing a hammer to a gunfight?

In fact, there’s nothing unforgivable among the many technical rough edges here; they come with the territory of a movie shot, as the cover letter for the screener puts it, “for less than the cost of a family night out with dinner and a movie.”

Most of the boners, though, come directly from the script, and that’s an area where I don’t mete out indulgences based on budget; after all, it takes no more money for David Stewart to type away on his computer as it does David Mamet. And these omissions in the storyline make it harder for us to get involved in Pia and Brad’s dilemma.

Because that big three-month courtship is glossed over in a few seconds, and the meat of the relationship is thus only sketched in from the peripheries. Pia (or China, as her true name is later revealed to be) was a normal introvert before a freak lightning strike left her modem picking up phone calls between two underlings in an assumably-criminal organization, and the information gleaned there tempted her to step in when one underling decided to rob his boss, and grab the booty for herself. In the months to come, you’ve got to assume that her sudden dive into criminal behavior, and her forced life under an assumed identity, would weigh heavily on her; that’s the kind of innter turmoil that makes characters real, and that’s something that should have been explored on-screen. The closest we come is her continued use of Chat-World, and that’s not really close at all. What drew her back there? Was she trying to maintain some kind of continuity with her old life? Was that her security blanket, her way of convincing herself that she hadn’t lost everything she’d ever know? We never find out.

“And to top it off, I’ve got Danny Bonaduce looking back at me from the mirror!”

Brad is also short-changed in that three-month period. We fast-forward to the end of it, when he exclaims that he’s tired of living with a mystery woman — but when did he first start getting disturbed? Did Pia’s behavior hint to him that she had more than just an over-active sense of privacy? Did his relationship with her make him lust for a better job and a life in the suburbs, only to be stymied by her unwillingness to follow their relationship further?

For that matter, once it’s dumped on him that she’s got a bagful of money that belongs to mobsters who are currently on the warpath, shouldn’t there at least be a reaction of anger, of betrayal, of even the possibility that he won’t help her? I don’t care how much he loves her; once her hidden past catches up with her and starts firing bullets, I think he ought to have at least the opportunity to vent about being dragged against his will into a life-threatening situation, not to mention any attendant loss of trust. At best, there should be a scene in which walking away from Pia and her messy baggage is a very real option and temptation for Brad.

These false steps are only more galling because of the things done right in the movie. There’s a lot of talent and potential indicated here; here’s hoping that the preproduction of Stewart’s next feature is fully as meticulous as the production itself. Then we’ll have a micro-budgeter that we can show to uninitiated friends and family with no apologies.