Warning - Spoilers Ahead!
At the end of the game, there is a dramatic confrontation as Trip pulls out a gun. In the midst of this standoff, Matt’s two backers come bursting in, having decided that they would rather take the whole pot than wait for their cut from Matt (assuming that he wins, that is). The standoff is finally broken by Trip grabbing the poker table and flipping it up in front of the camera. Chips, cards, and money fall off the green felt and in front of the viewer, as the sound of gunfire echoes in the background. It is an unexpected and unique effect, but actually a very clever one. While everyone would expect a shootout, it can be complicated and expensive to get just the right look, and this open-ended scene leaves the audience wondering who was left standing. I’m a firm believer that things can often be scarier when the villain or action is not shown, as the audience will fill in the blanks to what is often a scarier scene. The popular British television show Dr. Who – initially plagued by a pathetically low budget – used this idea to their advantage in many episodes, such as one in which only the monster’s hands are ever seen. That was all that the show could afford to do at the time, but ended up playing very well into the fear factor. Another example is the movie Predator; the creature causing all the carnage seems far scarier when it is just a blur of movement.
After this confrontation, the scene switches to two detectives combing through the crime scene. They mention having five bodies, but only finding $20 in cash. The audience, of course, knows there were six people present, and wants to know what happened to all the money. In the midst of the detectives’ conversation, there is a very brief dissolve to show a small bag of money being dropped onto a bathroom counter. This shot is barely seen before it fades back to a montage of the detectives looking around. Finally, the shot returns to the bag of money, and the reveal of the villain is quite anti-climactic, as we can see very feminine hands turning on the water in the sink, and the thief bends down to wash her face. The extra shots of the detectives aren’t necessary, because the audience already knows what they are doing. As such, what they really want to know about is who was left standing. As the detectives’ voice-overs continue, there could be cutaways to misleading shots – a blurry figure drops the bag of money next to a telephone that looks like Matt’s, said figure drops Butchy’s gun and silver chain somewhere, the figure picks up the same type of cocktail that Zane was seen drinking earlier. Then the sequence could end with a more dramatic shot like a close-up of the money bag, then the blurry figure steps into the shot, and kneels down in front of it, revealing the thief’s smug face.
As a final suggestion in visual look, there are a couple flashbacks within the back-story. The first one was slightly off-color and there was no dialogue. It was a nice look that was unique enough without being too obvious. However, the next two flashbacks were in black-and-white, and there was a bit of dialogue that cropped up in these. As there wasn’t anything specific about each flashback that would necessitate this differentiation, the three need to be uniform otherwise the audience will find themselves stuck on the different appearances and trying to read things into these differences that aren’t there.
The film’s background music is an original score, which added a great overall mood. A unique score is always a plus – it usually involves a lot more work and expense, but it does differentiate a movie. There were also multiple voice-overs throughout the film. It started and ended with the same dialogue, which was a nice ‘bookend’ effect. The few flashbacks were also narrated by the characters, keeping them shorter and more concise than just trying to act out an actual scene. And, in a very nice addition, when Matt was in Zane and Butchy’s apartment, the constant quiet scrubbing sound of Butchy cleaning his gun went through the whole scene. Though it was barely noticeable, it is a little touch that most wouldn’t think of keeping.
The biggest problems here, however, were the audio levels. When the music for the opening credits came on, I had to turn the volume down because it was too loud. But after the credits, the dialogue was too soft and I had to turn the volume back up. This is a mixing problem, though, and can be corrected – dialogue should be mixed to -12 Db, and music ‘bed’ to -18 Db so as not to overpower the dialogue.
