DVD Review: The Looking Glass

The Looking Glass is a tender and often moving film about an aging woman whose granddaughter comes to live with her in the country. It stars Dorothy Tristan as Karen, a woman who was once an actor but who now lives a relatively quiet life, and Grace Tarnow as Julie, her teenage granddaughter who comes to stay with her after the death of her mother.

Julie’s mother (Karen’s daughter) has died, and her father has remarried, with Julie none-too-fond of her new stepmother. And she shuts herself off a bit from her grandmother, preferring to spend her time on her computer. But after Karen hears Julie singing one day, she takes her to an audition for a local production, encouraging her to audition (so we get a montage of people auditioning). Julie leaves, but later reconsiders, and Karen takes her to an audition for another production, this one for a musical version of Alice In Wonderland. We get a second montage of people auditioning, which seems unnecessary (especially as we get variations of this scene in so many films), and this time Julie is part of it.

Julie gets the lead in the play. Things do seem a bit too easy at times in this film. Julie begins making friends, and even becomes interested in a boy. The movie has a relaxed, easy-going tone and atmosphere, at least for the most part (though certainly things take serious turns later). When Karen asks the director if she can sit in on rehearsals, Julie doesn’t object, which is a little unbelievable, as most teenagers would not be comfortable in that situation.

We do learn a bit more about the troubles that Julie had while living with her father and stepmother, when the two arrive to see Julie’s play. It seems we’re supposed to take an immediate disliking to Sybil (Julie’s stepmother) when she opines that people should not take babies on planes, but I completely agree with her. And I don’t quite believe the relationship with Julie’s father. It doesn’t seem like they really even know each other. I don’t quite buy him as her dad, which could be intentional, but which feels weird.

There are times when I felt the scenes should be longer. Like when Julie tells a friend about her mother, we are dropped into the middle of the scene, and I wonder what led her to this sudden emotional unburdening on her part. It feels like it comes out of nowhere. This movie is best when it allows its scenes to play out. For example, I love the scene with Julie and Terry (Karen’s neighbor, who had a history with Julie’s mother), when he talks about his past. It’s wonderful, because it feels so honest, and it reveals things in a subtle way. I also really like the scene where Karen gives Julie some acting tips. It’s a very sweet scene where Karen’s past meets Julie’s possible future.

The film really hinges on the performances by Dorothy Tristan and Grace Tarnow, who are in nearly every scene, and they both do great jobs. There are many tender moments between them, and you do become emotionally involved in their stories. Even early on, there is a wonderful moment when Karen says to Julie: “But now you’re here, and you’re her little girl, and we have each other, don’t we. Don’t we?” I love her delivery of the second “Don’t we,” for she really asks the question, showing a vulnerability that you might expect from the teenager but not necessarily from her. And so it really connects the two characters in our minds immediately.

By the way, we do see parts of the production of Alice In Wonderland, and it seems like an excellent production, certainly not the typical low-budget regional show you might expect. And the song “Teach Me To Sin” is a cool tune, with some great choreography.

Special Features

The DVD includes some special features. The Town That Made A Movie is an unfinished short documentary on this film, featuring interviews with Dorothy Tristan and John Hancock.  There are two deleted scenes, one with Karen and Terry, the other with Karen and Julie, in which Karen reveals she’s working on her memoir. There is also an extended scene of the Alice In Wonderland production, and that stuff is particularly good, including a delightful variation of musical chairs, only the very end of which is seen in the film.

The Looking Glass was directed by John Hancock, who also directed Let’s Scare Jessica To Death, Bang The Drum Slowly and California Dreaming (among others), and was released on DVD on January 12, 2016 through First Run Features.

DVD Review: The Breaking Point

The Breaking Point is a crime drama about three guys who shoot a woman in a convenience store, the detectives who are investigating the murder, and a woman who is eager to be district attorney. It is a mess. It opens with the woman who wishes to be the next DA telling a friend that she is working on something special in order to get that job. He asks her about Assistant DA Thomas who is next in line, and she tells him, “I’ll give Thomas an offer than he cannot refuse.” Here are some other clichés from that first scene: “Everything worth having is worth fighting for,” “If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you,” and “Word on the street.” The whole script is like that. It feels like a first draft. And we have to suffer through some awful and completely useless narration by a character named Shawn (played by Erik Grey).

Shawn, his brother Mike and his friend TJ enter a convenience store, and TJ decides to rob a woman in there, and ends up shooting and killing her. Another bullet injures Mike. Shawn, in his narration, tells us that this “set off a chain of events that we would all later regret.” The lighting is a major problem in this film. The actors are often in shadow, and it doesn’t seem like it’s by choice, but rather by lack of proper lighting.  When Li Ling, the Asian cashier at the store, tells the detectives, “I no see face,” it doesn’t seem like she’s lying, like she’s saying that because she’s scared to testify. I couldn’t see his face either, due to poor lighting.

The narrator introduces every character. “That’s Captain Harry Sawyer. He retired from the police department after thirty-two years. A real law and order type of dude.” Yes, that’s the kind of dialogue we have to listen to throughout the film. And watch Harry’s insane reaction when he learns his wife has been killed. Soon Harry’s granddaughters arrive (cue the terrible emotional music – the score is yet one more major problem), and one of them says, “We’ll get through this together, the way Grandma would have wanted it.” Have I mentioned how bad the dialogue is?

This movie also has several pointless flashbacks. In one of them, we see the chick that wants to be DA as a child. One of her friends says, “Come on, girls, we need to start working on our realistic career aspirations.” Really? That’s what these kids are doing? Another long, fruitless flashback involves an aborted oil change. The flashbacks become more and more risible. Check out the one after a little girl begs Harry, “Please don’t kill my mommy.” Oh, that reminds me: Harry of course starts investigating on his own, since he was a cop and it was his wife that was killed. But nothing ever comes of that. That’s the way this movie is. But in the middle of all this, there is a wonderful scene with two women named Bernadette and Yvette, who are questioned by the detectives. They are the only believable characters, and their scene is by far the most enjoyable. Bernadette is playing by Shellita Boxie, who turns in a really good performance.

The movie keeps introducing people, and you wonder briefly if they might have anything to do with the plot, if perhaps they’ll help get it going. But in most cases, no, they don’t. This movie is amateur hour through and through. It seems like there was no storyboarding or planning of any kind. I mean, who are the main characters? What is the film’s point of view? What is it trying to say? This movie pretends to be about an innocent man wrongly accused of murder. On the DVD cover it says, “Sometimes the innocent have to go beyond… The Breaking Point.” But Shawn is far from being innocent. He is a thug. Sure, he didn’t pull the trigger, but he is an accessory to murder. And then in an effort to avoid jail, he commits another crime – he breaks into the store that night in order to steal the surveillance tapes. But he can’t find them. Do the cops have them? No, apparently no one has them. It’s another element that never pays off. Why didn’t the cops ask about the tapes when they arrived on the crime scene? I don’t think it’s that the detectives are lazy; I think it’s the writers who are lazy. Yes, writers. It took two people to write this script. Wow.

The Breaking Point was released on DVD on October 27, 2015 through MVD Visual. The DVD includes five minutes of behind-the-scenes footage and the film’s trailer.