Daily Archives: October 1, 2006

Silent Partner

Blu-ray/DVD Reviews

If
the idea of Tara Reid negotiating a Russian accent seems nipped from
the same implausibly derisible files that gave us Elisabeth Shue
storing the notes for cold fusion in her bra in The Saint, you’re on the right track for the self-serious but really rather silly, internationally lensed suspense thriller Silent Partner.

Produced by Oscar-winning Crash producer Bob Yari and co-written and directed by James Deck, the film centers on a young CIA analyst, Gordon Patrick (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’
Nick Moran, coming off a bit like a young Willem Dafoe), who gets sent
to Russia to try turn up some information on the death (suicide or
murder?) of the minister of finance, Mikhail Garin (Georgy
Martirosian), and his connection to a loan program for an American
corporation, Langdon Industries. In the course of his consultation with
his ambassadorial liaison (Gregg Henry, breathing some snarkiness into
the movie), Patrick encounters a series of investigatory dead-ends
before hooking up with Dina Nevskaya (Reid), a steely prostitute who
might hold secrets that will illuminate important political
corruptions. Yadda, yadda, yadda… life imperilment and other stuff
ensues.

As far as its production values, Silent Partner is OK since
its setting is actually legit (the movie was shot in Russia, and saw
theatrical release there and in parts of Europe over a year and a half
ago). But its execution is for the most part sub-par, marred by
too-close camerawork in dialogue scenes and a car chase that defies the
basic principles of cross-cutting. Moran is somewhat intriguing as a
lead, mainly because he so heartily embraces the Everyman thing. Meanwhile, Reid drags out her patented ferret’s glare and perpetually
furrowed brow, and if the movie (thankfully) doesn’t fully showcase her
misaligned, surgically enhanced fun-bags, she does add a few more
vid-caps to her estimable canon of Internet-catalogued screen nudity.

Housed in a regular Amray case, Silent Partner is presented
in 1.78:1 widescreen, with an English language Dolby digital audio
track, but — seemingly strangely for such an international release — no
optional subtitles. The picture is fairly clean and free from grain,
though there were a few rolls in the movie’s latter third. Save a
theatrical trailer, there are no supplemental extras. D+ (Movie) C- (Disc)

Crystal Lake Memories

Ephemera

It’s rare, the lit department filings here at Shared Darkness, but devoted horror fans will surely want to check out Crystal Lake Memories, the superb new hardcover chronicling of the Friday the 13th series from Titan Books. Clocking in at 320 pages, and including a foreword by Sean S. Cunningham and interviews with over 200 franchise alumni, author Peter M. Bracke’s tome is as impressive an overview of a so-called lowbrow genre series as I’ve seen — the ultimate oral memoir of the most successful and lasting horror franchise of our time.

And hey, it’s great merely as eye candy, too — full of storyboards, original script pages, rare archival documents and production materials, and over 600 never-before-seen photos. If you’ve still got that Jason hockey mask stowed in your closet from Halloween, and/or you just want a good, hard, long look at all the sort of feuding, controversy and rights bickering that feeds into the development process (and sustenance of such an iconic character), this book is right in your wheelhouse, in time for both Halloween (its proper release) and this fall’s later gift-giving season.