This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Out of the Steel Pan
Into the Deep Fryer
Plot Overview
Mark Webster (Eoin Macken) is for the time being a successful New York attorney, with one junior partner, in his own law firm. He got needed trial experience as an (underpaid) assistant district attorney, then ten years ago changed sides to become a defense attorney for wealthy bad guys. Concurrent with that move was his acquisition of a bargain basement trophy wife. He successfully prosecuted low-life Bobby Ray Hodges (Callan Mulvey) who'd assaulted pretty, young Emma Davenport (Megan Fox) leaving her face bruised and with lost street confidence and smashed camera. That put an end to her marginal photographer career but made her ripe for Mark's pickings—her looks would come back. Now Bobby has been let out on parole and Mark is about to be indicted for evidence tampering in multiple cases.
Mark like many rich men
unwilling to face the music has decided to end his sorry life with
a bullet. He drives his wife to their now frozen lake house for a
last romantic evening together to relive pleasant memories. As a dramatic
parting shot (ouch!) he leaves his unappreciative wife handcuffed
to his corpse. Furthermore, he has messaged an out-of-favor employee
Tom Gorman (Aml Ameen) to drive over and find himself mired in
the mess. Mark has also found common ground with Bobby Ray and contracted
to let him and his younger brother Jimmy (Jack Roth) a safe-man have the
goods in his lake house safe—Emma supposedly has the combination.
Once the stage is set, and the starter's
pistol sounds off, the drama begins with: the corpse, the cunt, the
sap, the muscle and the mechanic. It's a cat-and-mouse game out there
in the sticks with a big house, some outbuildings, and a (frozen)
lake. Though Emma has a burden to drag around, she's also got her
photographer's smarts about lighting and angles to help her slip around
unnoticed. Tom is too concerned about what the police will eventually
think to consider that prison populations get segregated by race and
he's of a different one from Bobby who'd knife him as soon as look
at him if he gets in his way. Bobby Ray has only partial vision in
one eye and unexercised depth perception from his “years in
a cage.” Now he's searching a larger expanse for his prey. Jimmy's
in a hurry. He lacks Bobby's prison patience. He also lacks Bobby's
brutality, which puts the two at loggerheads with each other.
Ideology
Emma attributes Mark's final trick to his being crazy. He may or may not have been crazy, but he was at least suicidal. Maybe Emma made him that way, but probably not. At least she made him royally mad at her. “Till Death” shows us how that happened, along the lines of, (Prov. 30:33) “Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.” Churn liquid milk enough and it turns into solid butter. Drop the temperature on a lake long enough and it freezes. Work at crossing a nice guy over and over and he hardens his heart. You can push him around and he'll bounce back. But tweak his nose and it bleeds. A shot from a revolver to the head will bleed, too, though the other chambers be empty. Hit a person in a vulnerable spot and blood comes out. Screw a guy over in just the right way and he gets angry.
Mark and Emma celebrate their tenth anniversary in a swank New York restaurant like one in a Harold Schechter novel, which attracted “an upscale crowd: prosperous, slightly older men—either unmarried or pretending to be—and eye-catching women who aspired to the status of trophy wife or, at the very least, expensively kept mistress. Like the women, the steak and lobster tails were arguably the most succulent in the city and came with a price tag to match” (216). At a nearby table a grey-haired gentleman (Julian Balahurov) proposes to a luscious blonde (Stefanie Rozhko) many years his junior—think daughter. She gushes her acceptance, and Mark notes that was like Emma not so long ago. In the ladies room, however, the fortunate miss has a private cry. She has definitely settled for less than her looks could have got her in the man department. But financially she's set. Being a kept woman of any ilk requires sucking it up and putting on a brave face to please the guy who made it possible. Emma failed to do that. She appreciated the view from the top, but she didn't appreciate the guy who gave it to her. At least she didn't show it. She was like a zombie in his presence all the time.
The opening scenes are a visual delight, at least from a photographer's perspective. Emma meets with Tom in their love nest. She (who is white) wears a black dress and he (who is black) is wearing a white shirt. There is black and white abstract art on the wall. From there Emma repairs to Mark's building shot from above looking down on black umbrellas traversing a white snowscape. Stepping off the elevator she is given a large (anniversary) bouquet of white roses to carry against her black dress. Mark disapproves of her black dress and insists she change into the red one for dinner. She disapproves of his defense attorney work for the bad guys, but he likes the money and status getting others to do the dirty work for him.
Their ride
down in the elevator is to die for. The couple are going from their
top business floor down to the high-status, second sub-basement parking
level. Tom gets on at—get this—the thirteenth (i.e. bad luck) floor to get off at the
low-status street parking level. The two lovers pretend they'd only
met a year ago at the Christmas—“Don't
want to offend the PC
police”—holiday party and barely know each other.
Emma had donated “stunning” pictures to the charity auction.
Tom taking home papers to work on over the weekend is outwardly
(“Sir”) respectful to Mark. Emma becomes flustered over
which floor to get off at. Okay.
At the restaurant they exchange gifts for this their steel anniversary. Mark affixes a specially made steel necklace around his beloved's neck—she'll get the surprise steel bracelet in the morning. Emma gives him some Superbowl tickets on the (high-status) 50 yard line. Mark's favorite Steelers will be playing, but he knows he won't be around to see it. He's created an obstacle, too, for his trophy wife who shunned his high number for a low number employee only on board for political correctness. In the couple's impromptu hide-and-seek game, she only counts up to 87, 13 shy of 100. He tells her in a recorded message, “I was being called away, and I just couldn't sit back and watch you live happily ever after with him.”
Production Values
“” (2021) was directed by S.K. Dale. It was written by Jason Carvey. It stars Megan Fox, Eoin Macken, and Callan Mulvey. Fox gave a worthy performance that only improved as the suspense tightened. The other few actors held up their ends okay.
MPAA rated it R for strong violence, grisly images, and language throughout. Although the setting is upstate New York, the producers had “Till Death” filmed on location in Bulgaria. Runtime is 1 hour 28 minutes. The score and cinematography were flawless.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This is a little number that packs a wicked punch and contains an object lesson in not going out of your way to make people mad at you. It'll take your breath away and hold your attention following its twists and turns to the very end. The people involved with making it show good potential for more recognition to come. It was good but it would be a stretch to rate it more than average. This one will perform to expectations.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Don't watch this movie alone. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture taken from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Schechter, Harold. Outcry. Copyright © 1997 by Harold Schechter. New York: Pocket Books, 1997. Print.
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