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 n my neverending quest to give back to the world, I offer
this advice: When leaving a Note of Utmost Importance to your pregnant
girlfriend, who is sleeping it off inside your parked car, it's a good idea to
leave the note inside the car instead of outside wedged underneath
the windshield wipers. Hence, when your erratic girlfriend wakes up and assumes
that you have bailed on her (your note having predictably blown away during the
night), she won't make the boneheaded decision to get out of the car and go
walking around a strange city in the dead of night, thus (predictably) getting
into all manner of trouble.
Of course the above advice only makes sense if
writer/director/star/caterer Gavin Heffernan was suffering from Contrived Movie
Scenario-itis, a common virus that tends to infect a lot of movies nowadays.
Then again, if the reason Sam (Heffernan) had left the message on the car's
windshield was because he unconsciously hoped that it would blow away,
thus giving the wrong message to his maybe-girlfriend Niki (Erin Simkin), I beg
forgiveness. Could it be that Heffernan's script is that subtle? Having
been burned by too many lazy screenwriters in the past, I dare not invest too
much faith in this notion.
Nevertheless, the above ambiguity is one of the reasons why
"Expiration" is a surprisingly entertaining film. As small-town Sam maneuvers
through the seedy streets of Montreal with drug-courier-on-the-crossroads Rachel
(Janet Lane), Heffernan peppers the viewer with enough imagery, symbolism, and
motif to choke a horse. Obviously the product of a fine institution of higher
learning that offers a film program (or an uncanny facsimile), Heffernan knows
filmmaking. As a result, the movie quickly sheds its shot-on-video tag and earns
its stripes as an ambitious film that, more often than not, achieves what it
aims for.
Baby face Heffernan leads the talented cast as Sam, who as
the film opens is informed by Niki that she's pregnant with his baby. Although
Sam has no serious feelings for Niki, personal obligations convince him to do
the right thing. With plans to propose marriage during a night out in Montreal,
fate intervenes and Sam is separated from Niki. (Continued separation comes to
past by way of the aforementioned Conveniently Missing Note of Utmost
Importance.) Sam promptly encounters the troubled Rachel (Lane) during a store
hold-up, and after the robber flees with Sam's engagement ring and Rachel's
cache of drugs that she must deliver or risk untimely death, the two strangers
team up to pursue the criminal. Thus begins a memorable night in Montreal.
Putting aside the case of the Conveniently Missing Note of
Utmost Importance, "Expiration" offers a satisfying brew of colorful
characters and strange situations. The lovely Janet Lane makes a convincing lost
soul, even if the screenplay sometimes skimps on her background just a tad too
much. While we do get a number of flashes courtesy of seamless editing to reveal
what has lead Rachel to her current point of desperation (including the always
popular game of "which syringe has the AIDs in it?"), a bit more of
Rachel's past would have been welcomed. Then again, there's something to be said
about making the audience do most of the legwork.
With Sam and Rachel racing from location to location in
pursuit of their lost goods, Niki is left to wander the mean streets alone. She
meets up with tough cookie prostitute Julia (Denise Depass) and her slightly
screwed up daughter Naomi (Yetide Badaki). Niki's adventures lead to an intense
scene involving an unconscious would-be-rapist and a big knife in the hands of
an angry teen. But the fact that Sam and Rachel are tied at the hips throughout
most of the movie pretty much gives away the film's obvious conclusion. A bit
more of a question mark involving the fates of the 3 characters would have been
preferred.
Although the movie's title and boxcover conjures up gloomy
scenarios, the film itself offers up a healthy dose of humor. Even the film's
penultimate plot point, involving a hyperactive junkie and the roof of a
skyscraper at dawn, had the potential to be depressing. Instead, the scene plays
out as simply...natural. It helps that the visuals of "Expiration" are
excellent, especially some of the establishing shots of downtown Montreal. The
entire movie looks to have been shot with digital video, maybe even a mini DV.
The sharp video images are a bit startling at first, but the story itself is so
human that nothing else will soon matter.
Most of all, Heffernan should thank his lucky stars that
he's blessed with such a stellar cast of unknowns. You could watch a hundred
Indie films produced on little to moderate budget and never run across this kind
of capable cast. Among the notables are Depass as the prostitute/mother and
Yetide Badaki as her troubled daughter. Leading lady Janet Lane makes an
intriguing mystery woman, and Heffernan plays the small-town boy with a
personality approaching naïve innocence -- and at the same time traditional
sturdiness -- just right.
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