For English instructor Sam Luck, everything that can go wrong will go wrong in this gruesome potboiler. He loses his car, his job, his diner, his bank account, his dog, his wife, and (spoiler alert:) his life to his new neighbor, Taren Hathaway. He even loses to her at bowling!
How much agency exists in the downfall of Sam Luck? From the perspective of the filmmakers, the answer is : a lot! Sam makes a string a stupid decisions, the most outrageous of which is accepting a $10,000 watch as a gift from Taren.
Sam's main problem is that he does not have healthy boundaries. He is incapable of saying "no," and he goes through life not thinking of the consequences of his actions. He is thrilled to give his class a set of tablets that will replace the regular textbook. The students are thrilled that they don't have to read a boring book. But Sam never considers how the technology might produce negative results. There was an incident nine years in his past in which Sam was having a casual affair. He was unaware of how fateful that tryst would be. He then repeats his bad behavior in the film with Taren. Sam just can't seem to recognize damaged goods when he sees them.
There is a fascinating scene in which Taren pays for the demolition of a red automobile. We watch the car being crushed, crunched, and processed into a small square object. And with great speed! The car is the metaphor for the ruination of Sam Luck.
Too much of this film stretched credibility. Everything from the school scenes to the bank transactions was sketchy and begged questions that were never answered. Above all, the film was far too unpleasant in the never ending violence. Was this realism? a mystery? a romance? an action film? a horror flic? Or...a little of everything?
How much agency exists in the downfall of Sam Luck? From the perspective of the filmmakers, the answer is : a lot! Sam makes a string a stupid decisions, the most outrageous of which is accepting a $10,000 watch as a gift from Taren.
Sam's main problem is that he does not have healthy boundaries. He is incapable of saying "no," and he goes through life not thinking of the consequences of his actions. He is thrilled to give his class a set of tablets that will replace the regular textbook. The students are thrilled that they don't have to read a boring book. But Sam never considers how the technology might produce negative results. There was an incident nine years in his past in which Sam was having a casual affair. He was unaware of how fateful that tryst would be. He then repeats his bad behavior in the film with Taren. Sam just can't seem to recognize damaged goods when he sees them.
There is a fascinating scene in which Taren pays for the demolition of a red automobile. We watch the car being crushed, crunched, and processed into a small square object. And with great speed! The car is the metaphor for the ruination of Sam Luck.
Too much of this film stretched credibility. Everything from the school scenes to the bank transactions was sketchy and begged questions that were never answered. Above all, the film was far too unpleasant in the never ending violence. Was this realism? a mystery? a romance? an action film? a horror flic? Or...a little of everything?