Favor
Paul Osborne’s last endeavor, the documentary OFFICIAL REJECTION chronicles a filmmaker’s journey through the independent film festival circuit. Along the way he meets fellow filmmaker and actor Blayne Weaver (6 MONTH RULE), who stars in Osborne’s latest narrative feature, FAVOR. This slow burn thriller is co-starring Patrick Day (WAITING FOR OPHELIA) is about two childhood friends, the directions their lives have taken them, and how one mistake can change their lives forever. The tagline of the film is an old adage “A friend helps you move. A good friend helps you move a body”. This tagline alone gives up the premise of the movie but doesn’t give away the plot by a longshot.
Weaver’s character Kip is a successful ad man working his way up the corporate ladder. He’s got a decent house, a beautiful wife, and a penchant for a little somethin’ on the side. After a casual encounter with a waitress one night that results in her accidental death, Kip panics and calls childhood friend Marvin, a down-and-out loser, to help him dispose of the body. What follows is a slowly increasing palpable creepiness and tension that culminates in short spurts until the entirely satisfying conclusion.
An interesting aspect of FAVOR is that neither of the leads are entirely likable. Kip has swagger and finesse but is ultimately a sociopath that just uses people to get what he needs. Marvin has a childish charm about him but as we work deeper into the workings of him life and mind, we reveal a psychotic and possessive individual. It’s easy to see how these two would have been friends as children. With Kip’s suave manner and ability to get what he wants combined with Marvin’s neediness they complimented each other perfectly. As adults though their personality traits just come off creepy. By the end of the movie neither character really has any redeeming qualities left. Day’s portraying of Marvin is spot on while Weaver’s performance seems a little over-acted when compared to other films in which he’s the leading man.
The cinematography in the film is fairly standard. Nothing especially significant but also not bad in any way. The film is dark, not just in tone, but in most scenes the lighting seems to be dark as well. This fits the tone of the film but also causes a bit of strain trying to watch it. One could say that the lighting is stylized, but it just feels off. The editing is solid technically speaking but the film feels exceptionally long. It could do with a few trims here and there to bring this 102-minute opus to a lean sub-90-minute animal. The score and sound design are fairly minimal which fits the tone of the movie. The dialogue is crisp and the sound mix is well done.
When the film finally gets to the third act it really delivers. As the conflict comes to a head Osborne delivers twists that would make M. Night Shyamalan proud. Osborne is a fantastic storyteller. The payoff, while some might predict AN ending, I don’t feel most will predict THE ending. As a first narrative feature Osborne did well. It will be interesting to see how Osborne learns from this experience in his next film.
