Goodbye Promise
The second feature film by director David Branin, GOODBYE PROMISE, is an intimate account of a struggling actor coming to terms with his failure to “make it” in the business after spending seven years in Hollywood. Filmed in the cinema verité style, Branin shows that you don’t need to have a large budget to tell a captivating story.
Matt (Gregor Collins) is frustrated by his life. His neighbor is inconsiderate, he’s single and wracked with regret about the girl who got away, and his friends all seem to be going somewhere in their personal and professional lives. One week shy of his seven-year anniversary in Los Angeles, Matt is giving up on his dream and preparing to go back home to Washington DC. Throughout the film Matt reaches out to friends and mentors to say goodbye, but usually just ends up more frustrated by their apparent successes, although the director gives minor glimpses into the private lives of some of these friends and shows that Matt isn’t the only one with problems. There is a fair amount of pity that Matt seems to try to evoke from his friends as he looks to them to try to justify his feelings of self-doubt and regret, but this pity really just makes him seem weak and shallow.
GOODBYE PROMISE is the kind of movie that you don’t need to be a part of the Hollywood scene to appreciate. It deals with deep psychological issues that plague everyone who pursues their dreams and feels like they’ve come up short. It also offers hopeful messages. Although somewhat saccharin, one message is that even if things seem dark today, tomorrow may bring new opportunities. The other has to do with passion. Matt has lost his passion for acting. He might pound the pavement looking for work but to him the industry has become a job, something to deal with rather than something he enjoys doing. It’s made him bitter. His passion for the work has been overshadowed by his need to work. Entrepreneurs and even people just entering the job market can relate wholeheartedly to the obstacles that they face when attempting to chase their passions in the face of also financially securing their futures.
Shooting in the handheld style and budget that GOODBYE PROMISE was delivered in has its drawbacks. There are lighting issues, sometimes there is dialogue that isn’t quite ADR’d properly, there are a couple of mismatched shots, and it suffers from the “man walking to a music score” that a lot of independent films depend on to build mood, move the character to the next scene, or to show the character “thinking” or struggling with something. It can be an easy way to add some production value to a film by showing some character movement, but almost without exception usually leaves the audience bored. Watching someone walk down a street to a music cue isn’t storytelling, and in a drama-heavy film like this, the story needs to move along as quickly as possible. Pacing is paramount. All of that said, David Branin manages to out-Duplass the Duplass brothers with his take on mumblecore. The camera is handheld, but not shaky, the audio is relatively clean in most scenes, and the shots, while at times indulgent, are at least in focus. While the Duplass brothers try to create “fly on the wall” films, Branin creates a “friend standing next to you” film that captures the reality of the movie and makes the audience a part of the film rather than a disconnected observer.
Kudos to all of the actors and actresses who worked on this film, which was shot mostly unscripted, for creating a “family” around Matt’s character that felt natural, real, and multi-dimensional. Everyone in the movie isn’t just playing an archetype of someone we all know, but instead they play the people closest to us; the people who know us the best. Their reactions to Matt leaving aren’t all supportive, and their behavior reflects the reality of friendship. The ending is a bit up in the air, intentionally, of whether Matt will stay or give it another try. The imagery makes for good conversation after the movie and overall leaves the audience feeling like they’ve just experienced a week with this character and his world.
