REESEVILLE A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2003 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
Christian Otjen's REESEVILLE is so overwrought and overacted that it's hard to keep from laughing out loud and thereby disturbing those sitting near you who might not find the picture so ridiculous. This whodunit, which sometimes seems like a spoof of a bad TV movie, wants to be taken seriously. But, with the actors' exaggerated gestures and with its way over-the-top, ever-present music, it is nigh impossible to do anything other than laugh.
It opens somewhat promisingly with a corpse hanging from a living room ceiling in an old house. Although the death appears to be a suicide, the suspense is quickly broken. It is definitely a murder that was made to look like a suicide.
Most of this potboiler, however, isn't about the murder but about the intrigues of a small town. Typical of the overstaged scenes is one in which Iris (Majandra Delfino), the sister of the town's sheriff (Brian Wimmer), has sex with David (Brad Hunt), the "suicide" victim's son. Before she has sex with this guy whom she barely knows, she feels obligated to first confess her family's deepest and darkest secret. After that, she happily drops her underwear and has sex in her brother's room under his crucifix. As she moans away, the camera cuts back and forth between the tryst and a gory scene of a man being beaten to death with a bowling pin.
"Everything is big in a small town," Iris tells us. Sometimes too big, as this overheated movie proves.
REESEVILLE runs 1:39. It is not rated but would be an R for sex, language and graphic violence and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival (www.Cinequest.org), which runs February 27 to March 9, 2003.
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