Starring: Blayne Weaver, Patrick Day, Jeffrey Combs
Directed by: Paul Osborne (“Official Rejectionâ€)
Written by: Paul Osborne (“Official Rejectionâ€)
What’s the best way to measure how strong a friendship is? According to a conversation in their formative years, Kip (Blayne Weaver) and Marvin (Patrick Day) believe that you can tell how good a friend is by whether or not they’ll help you move a dead body. Following an unfortunate set of events, Kip comes to Marvin to test the theory and enlist his help in an event that will change both of their lives forever.
“Favor†starts out interesting enough as we witness Kip coming to Marvin begging for help. Through flashbacks, we see what exactly it is that Marvin did. The movie then comes apart, aiming high with a series of twists and manipulations and falling flat. While Day gives full effort to his role, the rest of the cast is below average, especially Weaver who is constantly toeing the line of being unnatural. The film’s screenplay is also a weak link, with a lot of hackneyed dialogue and jokes that don’t work. The scenes where Kip is talking to his secretary in particular come off as completely phony.
Though “Favor†strives to be a dark psychological thriller, not enough focus or weight is given to the true psychological effects of what Marvin ends up doing. Instead, we just see Marvin slowly start to unravel and become excessively weird and crazy. There’s a decent twist towards the end, but ultimately the film turns into another run-of-the-mill thriller and buries the potential of a relatively unique premise.
“Favor” plays at the 2013 Austin Film Festival Friday, Oct. 25 at 10:30 p.m. (Rollins Theater) and Thursday, Oct. 31 at 10:00 p.m. (Alamo Drafthouse Village).
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