In latin, the term 'deus
ex machina', means a 'god in the workings.' More appropriately,
it refers to divine intervention to bail out the protagonist
without any rationale from the writing. It comes from the
unknowable nature of Roman deities who would interfere in
elements of human life on a whim, sometimes to the benefit
of the main character of a play. For Waiting on Alphie,
the term 'Daemon ex machina' would be more appropriate,
as a malevolent fate dumps all the cards back into Gus'
hands, despite the fact that he's done nothing in the film
to earn having the deck restacked in his favor.
Out
of nowhere, we find out that Gus has been aware of the hit
on him and his squad's life all along, despite no earlier
dialogue to back this assertion up. Additionally, we find
out that Gus' associate, 'Vinnie,' who he talked to on a
cell phone earlier in the movie, isn't really in Chicago
but is, instead, here in New York. Moreover, Vinnie apparently
doesn't have the scruples to stick to an original job because
he's willing to let anyone buy him out. Which is why, even
though he took a contract to kill Gus, he's willing to be
bought out for a dollar and kill Alphie instead. (The dollar
buy-out is very obscure when watching the film, being only
hinted at by the fact that Gus draws a dollar from his wallet
and waves it in the air as Alphie is dying. It was so obscure,
that I was only made aware of it when I asked the producer
what had prompted Vinnie to shoot Alphie, rather than honoring
the contract on Gus.)
The
problems with both types of 'ex machina' solutions
is that they always feel contrived. In cookie cutter movies,
you don't care so much because 'ex machina' endings
are all part of the cliché. However, in a movie that
has as much heart and soul as Waiting on Alphie,
it's really heartbreaking to have it end on a clichéd
note. Not only does the ending feel contrived, but it opens
up a huge slew of questions that were previously answered.
One involves different figures for the amount of the hit
on Alphie, which is not defined very well in the movie.
(I was able to ask the producer about it and get it figured
out, but most viewers will not have that luxury.) Another
question is: if Gus is going to bribe another hitman to
welch on a hit, then why can't he just pull the gun and
shoot Alphie himself? He's already broken his other rules
of business and also confessed to storing no more positive
feelings toward Alphie. Yet another question involves why
a contract killer would shoot a mark in the gut, rather
than in the heart? I can understand why you wouldn't shoot
a person in the head, due to the budget costs of that sort
of makeup, yet the chest is no more difficult to put a squib
on than the stomach. For that matter, why are none of the
hit men using silencers, considering they've come to shoot
someone in a public place?
While
that last question about silencers isn't fixed by altering
the ending, the other questions are. If we end with Gus
trapped in New York as he forced Alphie to be trapped there
four years ago, then there's a symmetrical outcome to the
film, as well as a twist in which no one dies, with the
continued idea of living in a place that's not your home
being worse than death. Plus there's the simple symmetry
that comes from the fact that the person who trapped Alphie
in the cage of New York comes with the keys to let Alphie
out of cage but is unaware of that because he's not as smart
as he thinks he is.
In this
ending, we don't even have to bring Vinnie into the situation,
which is appropriate, because Vinnie's never been a character
in the movie before now anyway. (Though, a few of the other
reviewers liked the idea of bringing Vinnie in but having
him stay true to the contract and killing Gus.)
With
the ending that's currently on the film, power has been
given to the already powerful and the already weak have
been destroyed, which is anticlimactic. In the alternate
ending I suggested above, the juxtaposition of characters
ends up being both climactic and satisfying.
Due
to the artistic nature of the film, the director might be
able to get away with making this ending with shots he already
has and a few well placed voice-overs. While this would
shorten the film below 80 minutes, it would make the conclusion
as strong as the rest of this great film. Of course, if
a couple of extra minutes are needed, some simple tie up
scenes that show Alphie, Gus, and the server in their lives
after this interaction would be cool. (A really nice touch
could be a flash into the future to Gus doing the same stunt
that Alphie did to him to the hit man that took out his
unit in Chicago.)
Visual
Look
Considering
that this film was shot with a Canon GL2, the look is extremely
impressive. The lighting was really even and low key, though
the uniformity of light did bring up the lack of contrast
which is a native problem to the GL2.
[Note
to the Director: There are a number of cinegamma plug-ins
on the market - like Nattress FilmEffects for FCP and Magic
Bullet Editors which works with Vegas - that can help even
up the contrast a bit and make the film look more like it
was originated on film. For the ultimate answer, the folks
from FilmLook are offering readers a 20% discount on their
patented FilmLook process, which does an amazing job of
making DV look like film. Their costs run about $3K to process
a 90 minute film ($2400 with your MicroFilmmaker discount),
so you would want to request a demo disc from them to see
if their results are worth it to you.]
While
most of this film's look was even and uniform, there was
one scene that had some visual problems. Midway through
the film, Alphie and Gus must go to the bathroom together,
because Gus has to go and he's not going to leave Alphie
unsupervised. When they cut to the scene, there is an XCU
of Alphie's face as he uses the urinal. Unfortunately, both
the image quality seems to be lower and the camera seems
to have gotten slightly orange balanced (which turns subjects
a bluish tint), making it look as though they switched to
using a consumer camcorder for these scenes. After a few
more off-shots, the camera returns to the correctly white-balanced
GL1 that's used for the rest of the movie. The only reason
this shot is very noticeable is because of how well the
rest of the film is shot. Post color correction could improve
this, but the resolution that seems off is a bit difficult.
[Note to the Director: Perhaps cutting to the server that
is outside the door at this point could allow enough of
the dialogue to pass by that you could cut to another shot.]
The
visual effects in the film were really great in the film.
The
credits are tied in with various black and white elements
of a diner, specifically a cup of coffee. The noir look
of it, along with the tight titles, tie in nicely with the
transitions that occur later in the film.
The
transitions utilize black and white freeze frames to buffer
scenes - specifically when a period of time is passing.
The fact that these freeze frames occur through a pause
in dialogue and a quick desaturation of the colors alongside
a heightened contrast really reminds you of the pop-bulb
flash transitions of noir gangster thrillers. This effect
is further heightened through flashbacks that are comprised
of still black and white photos decorated with crimson blood,
giving the film a graphic novel edge that reminded me minutely
of Sin City.
