20/20 Filmsight - Film Criticism by David O'Connell

Blame is one of the less distinguished local films to hit cinema screens in recent times. A tedious, single location drama that tries to extract tensions from a revenge attack that goes awry, Blame is the work of writer/director Michael Henry.

Filmed in Western Australia, the film begins with a teacher, Bernard (Damian de Montemas), returning to his remote home in the woods. Within double-quick time he's beset upon by a quartet of attackers in balaclavas who proceed to tie him up and drug him with what is supposed to be a lethal dosage.

This plan of revenge has been concocted by Cate (Kestie Morassi), Nick (Simon Stone) who is the group’s vocal leader, the wimpy Anthony (Ashley Zukerman) and Natalie (Sophie Lowe). Waiting in the nearby woods for the onerous task to be completed is the sullen John (Mark Leonard Winter) who seems to be pulling the strings at first but apparently doesn’t have the stomach for direct confrontation.

The playing field changes however when Anthony stupidly leaves his mobile phone behind, necessitating a return to the scene of the crime. Naturally, the body has vanished in their absence. But the incapacitated Bernard is no Michael Myers, he hasn’t strayed far with those force-fed drugs still percolating in his bloodstream; confused and disoriented he stumbles about with little clue as to the group’s motivation. They tie him up again, but now what?

Pieces of the puzzle are gradually coaxed out into the light by Henry’s underwhelming screenplay which tries to manufacture compelling reasons for this concerted effort at delivering a dish best served cold. But grey lines of morality are created, throwing questions of how to deal with the undead victim and where the guilt really lies into the open.

Conflict naturally ensues with a consensus unable to be reached. Resentment swells, half-measures are considered, discarded; a definitive solution drifts further from view with each passing minute, creating complications that can’t be ignored. Toss the requisite discovery of a firearm and a persistent delivery man into the mix and you have contrivances piling on top of one another like old newspapers.

The acting is passable for the most part given the generic, uninspiring dialogue fed into the performers mouths. Morassi and Stone, at least, look like their hearts are in it, but Lowe, so luminescent in Beautiful Kate (2009), comes across as vapid and blank. I remember thinking Winter looked eerily like Daniel Day-Lewis with a beard in the superb Van Diemen's Land (2009). Well, without the beard, he doesn't. Not really.

Blame (2011) stagnates just as it should be hitting its stride; the limitations of a single location kill any chance at diversifying the perspectives – something that feels desperately needed by the half-way point as the narrative gasps for air, faltering with each uninteresting revelation before reaching a final, inexorable creative impasse.




I say: An underwhelming thriller that feels like it's going through the motions for much of its length.

See it for: The foothills, the trees, a well-oiled shotgun............a cute barking dog? I'm struggling here..........