Review of 45

Introduction

Looking at the artwork for Gary Lennon`s directorial debut `.45`, you can`t blame a guy for thinking it`s going to be rubbish. Milla Jovovich, taking top billing, wearing a skirt that`d make your mother blush and holding the gun of the title in a not at all obvious homage to Luc Besson`s `Nikita`, it reeks of trash. And bear in mind, if Paul W.S Anderson couldn`t do anything interesting with Jovovich, guns and zombies the three times he tried his hand at it as either writer or director, then what`s the best you could hope for when there isn`t an animated rotting corpse in sight and the director`s greatest claim to fame is writing an episode of Paul Haggis` short-lived TV show `The Black Donnellys`? Well the thing is, the artwork completely mis-sells the film. `.45` has about as much in common with `Resident Evil` as a fish has with a bicycle.

Jovovich plays Kat, girlfriend of Big Al (Angus Macfadyen - `Braveheart`), the neighbourhood`s resident bully and small-time hoodlum. When Big Al takes exception to the attention Kat gets from some local Puerto Rican hoods, he beats her to within an inch of her life. Wanting to leave him, she realises that Big Al will never willingly let her go, and she has no shortage of admirers lined up trying to convince her to concoct a plan to kill him, including Al`s friend Riley (Stephen Dorff) and Kat`s bi-sexual buddy Vicki (Sarah Strange - `ReGenesis`). But Big Al won`t go down without a fight, and Kat`s biggest ally seems to come in the form of social worker Liz (Aisha Tyler - `24`), who tries to convince her that there may be another solution.

Video

The disc comes from DNC Entertainment, a new label on the home entertainment block. Under the delusion they`re one of the big boys, they`ve bunged our way a specially mocked up DVD-R, complete with massive DNC anti-piracy warning across the bottom of the screen. As such, I haven`t set eyes on a retail-ready release, and so won`t be commenting on the visuals.

Audio

The complete Dolby Digital 5.1 track has thankfully made it to the promo disc. it`s a dialogue-heavy film, but there is some good use of front soundstage separation during scenes laden with music or spot effects. Rears are all but dormant throughout though, and scenes with thundering bass are non-existent. All in, it`s a competent surround mix, but not one for showboating.

Features

The DVD-R we received had a static menu emblazoned with the DNC Entertainment logo (give it a rest, eh?), and didn`t even offer a scene selection. Again, this wasn`t retail-finalised, so I couldn`t comment on extras included in the real deal.

Conclusion

`.45` starts off lulling you into believing you`re about to be treated to a trashy revenge thriller, a `Kill Bill` with no class. But it isn`t. But part of the problem is that it doesn`t know what it wants to be. It opens with a fourth wall-breaking monologue - a feature that goes on to become part of the film`s narrative structure - where Jovovich treats us to a camera piece about the size of Big Al`s little Al. Good for him, yawn for the rest of us, unless you fall for that sub-`Pulp Fiction` irrelevant chit-chat nonsense. It sets the tone for the film as a sleazy, squalid and foul-mouthed piece of low-budget exploitation cinema, a tone that remains even as the plot that surrounds it takes a page or two from the made-for-TV melodrama book during the second act.

And that`s essentially how `.45` comes across; as three disparate acts which share a conjoined plot, but are at times incredibly alien to each other. It starts off like a junkie comedy-drama with bust deals and drunken fooling around, goes on to become something you`d expect to catch Tyne Daly in on a weekday afternoon, and ends up at the final act, a queer mixing of the two which raises an eyebrow or two at the tangent the plot goes off on and how logically nonsensical it ends up as you speed towards the credits.

But regardless of how uncultured it is - and at times it`s like listening to sailors on shore leave - it has a lot of indie charm. The always sassy Jovovich actually gets something to chew on for once as she tries her chops reasonably successfully as an abused woman, and her support, perhaps with the exception of Dorff who looks and acts like he just woke up, are on good form. What the script lacks in terms of finesse, Lennon makes up with a relaxed, almost intimate direction, and the plot is interesting enough, even if it`s not nearly as clever as it thinks it is, to hold your attention. An entertaining film for the disjointed hour and a half it lasts.