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HOW TO DETER A ROBBER
Director: Maria Bissell Cast: Vanessa Marano, Benjamin Papac, Chris Mulkey, Abbie Cobb, Sonny Valicenti, Nikki Crawford, Jonah Ray, Gabrielle Carteris, Leah Lewis, Arnold Y. Kim, Deanna Rooney MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:25 Release Date: 7/16/21 (limited; digital & on-demand) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 15, 2021 It's inevitable that Madison (Vanessa Marano) and her boyfriend Jimmy (Benjamin Papac) will have to confront a pair of robbers in How to Deter a Robber, and the joke of writer/director Maria Bissell's debut feature is how ill-prepared the duo are for that task. The bigger point, represented by her poor planning and treating all of this as a kind of game, is how unprepared Madison is for life in general. That makes this semi-wacky scenario more of a coming-of-age story than a thriller, although the third act gradually downplays the humor that comes to define this tale—until matters are dreadfully, deadly serious. That's a reflection of Madison's journey, too. Larceny and love and life in general can seem like a joke, until they aren't, and that's when a person has to decide of what stuff they're made. Most of Bissell's movie is good-natured and kind of silly. Madison, celebrating Christmas with her family and Jimmy at a cabin in northern Wisconsin, is applying for college, writing an essay about a greatest loss of her childhood: a goldfish. The teen is a bit juvenile—a trait that isn't helped by Jimmy's own childishness or the constant assault of criticism from her mother (played by Gabrielle Carteris). Eventually, the two teenage lovers are suspected of robbing a neighbor's house, meaning they have to stay with Madison's uncle Andy (Chris Mulkey), who tries to teach them a thing or two about responsibility and protecting themselves. When Andy's home is robbed, sending the trio back to the family cabin, the two teens set up a bunch of homemade alarms and booby traps, which is a lot of fun—until the two robbers finally arrive. Everything up to that point is kind of amusing and a bit charming. Marano effortlessly imbues Madison with sardonic pluck and no small degree of sympathy, and Mulkey provides a wise but droll avuncular presence. When the climactic robbery/hostage situation does occur, though, the stakes are raised so high and with such instant severity that Bissell seems less certain about the story's purpose and, more importantly, tone. As the trio negotiate with and evade the robbers, there's some effective suspense, as well as some startling violence, and in the process, How to Deter a Robber loses too much of its own innocence, in order to amplify Madison's journey toward adulthood. Copyright © 2021 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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