Studio: Giant Pictures
Director: Tony Dean Smith
Writer: Tony Dean Smith, Ryan W. Smith
Producer: Ryan W. Smith, Tony Dean Smith
Stars: Adrian Glynn McMorran, Magda Apanowicz, John Cassini, Frank Cassini, Aleks Paunovic, Bill Marchant
Review Score:
Summary:
Clairvoyant visions propel a desperate man through a time traveling trip to prevent his death at the hands of thieves.
Review:
Very little flab can be found on “Volition,” an otherwise nimble thriller from director Tony Dean Smith and his co-writer brother Ryan W. Smith. All of that fluff can be found in the first act.
James Odin introduces himself as a prototypical burnout. An alcoholic smoker sporting six days of stubble and a white tank top, James blows off his burly landlord’s demand for overdue rent. James might be able to make that cash quick. He doesn’t know why, how, or even when, but occasional flickers in his mind’s eye reveal flashes of a future that always comes true. This time James gets a glimpse at a boxing bout outcome, so he’s off to bilk a bookie bartender before returning to his unnoticed existence living above an auto repair shop.
On his way home however, James stops an alleyway assault on Angela, and the mutual interest they suddenly take in one another says a romance is about to bloom. Love has to wait though. Just as suddenly, and just as serendipitously, a car pulls up carrying Sal, James’s old criminal cohort freshly released from prison.
Sal and his partner Terry take James to see Sal’s cousin Ray, who runs a crime ring out of a fabric warehouse. Illegal business must be booming because Ray came into possession of ten million dollars worth of blood diamonds, and he needs James’s ability to help “see” around federal interference. James agrees and the first domino in his fate falls. Well, aside from all of the other dominos James doesn’t yet know he knocked over.
Sal and Terry plan to betray Ray and rob James. When doors get kicked in and guns start firing, James goes on the run with Angela. After the diamonds go missing mysteriously, visions drive James to seek help from his foster father Elliot. Unlucky for James, Ray thinks he took the stolen loot. Their standoff comes to a head when someone gets shot and subsequently bleeds out on Elliot’s floor.
There’s only five more minutes left in the story, but “Volition” hasn’t yet reached its midpoint. That’s because after the body drops, Elliot administers a strange serum that seemingly sends James into the past. Even with thieves, a new girlfriend, and magic formulas already in the mix, James’s unusual adventure has barely begun, and his clairvoyance will be critical in piecing the puzzle together.
Being a brain-bender steeped in parallel reality paradoxes and time travel trickery, “Volition” will have eyes, uncertain about what is or isn’t important, darting everywhere onscreen for clues. You could fill a notepad cataloguing split-second images from James’s brain such as windshield wipers, street signs, floor tile patterns, even misplaced cigarette packets while wondering how every cryptic bit fits together.
Despite these head games, “Volition” really isn’t too twisty to follow. Background noise like that from the landlord and bartender end up being irrelevant outside of what minor insight they add to James’s already established character. In fact, many of the movie’s details are mere MacGuffins with no nobler purpose than keeping sci-fi suspense spinning speedily.
Less a love interest and more of a prop, Angela qualifies as one such MacGuffin. So do the diamonds. It would be fair to argue “Volition” undercuts its fantasy by plugging in several props and people so thin, convincingness nearly cracks from the weight required by disbelief suspension.
But part of the movie’s magic lies in its knack for keeping intrigue hot on the front burner so simmering pots in the back don’t singe you with their logic-popping bubbles. It’s hard to get hung up on how fast the setup comes together when one result of that rush is a breathless pace that rarely allows time to linger on nagging questions. Once the premise dispenses with trivialities, “Volition” keeps its camera as active as the story. The snowballing melee makes an immersive mystery out of scrappy parts that may not seem like much on their own, but add up to an admirable indie effort that gets by on gusto instead of big stars and dazzling design.
“Volition’s” endgame focuses on engaging in rapid-fire entertainment, not being precious about its cleverness. Upon recognizing that fact, it becomes easy to simply go with the flow in order to enjoy the brisk runtime without slowing for exposition that wouldn’t make much material difference anyway.
Viewers are required to surrender desires for excessive explanation upon entering. For instance, anyone who gets stuck on the science of such premises is going to harrumph at a hypodermic injection that enables time travel, a cheap plot device if ever there was one. Yet “Volition” never asks for a similar sacrifice of intelligence, and that’s the dividing line separating the “good” time travel stories from the “bad.” A movie doesn’t have to justify how everything works as long as it doesn’t talk down to its audience. “Volition” only puts essential toys in play, and trusts viewers to get in on the game.
The film isn’t always as tight as it could be, particularly with respect to an ending that could tie loose ends more cleanly. But high concept fiction almost always comes with some clatter, and “Volition’s” doesn’t make enough noise to drown out its magnetic drama. A testament to how much the Smith Brothers manage to manufacture with a committed crew as well as their own intellectual investment, “Volition” shows what hungry filmmakers can do even when they don’t have the production money to match a wealth of novel ideas.
Review Score: 80
Everyone else who has no problem with a fright flick that feels like “Lizzie McGuire” decided to get dark with a PG-13 Halloween special should do just fine.