Forfeit (2007)

Forfeit has more than enough plot and Billy Burke and Gregory Itzin have got all the makings of a great dramatic duo. However, the story starts off on a colossally wrong foot, stays horribly out of balance the rest of the way and how it's all filmed robs the movie of any mood or sense of style. This is a complex, psychological thriller that's shot and staged like an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger or Renegade. You know, that syndicated 90s show with Lorenzo Lamas. It's as if this was written by someone who's almost as smart as he thinks and directed by someone who's much dumber than he suspects. It also doesn't help that Burke and Itzin are the only ones taking this thing seriously, while everyone else in the cast apparently thought Forfeit was a comedy. This isn't a terrible motion picture but it's far enough off the mark to be closer to a miss than a hit.Frank (Billy Burke) is a low-paid guard at an armored car company. He's returned to his hometown 18 years after killing his father and tries to rekindle his romance with his old girlfriend Karen (Sherry Stringfield). But it gradually becomes clear that Frank has an agenda with Karen that goes far beyond happy reunion and designs on his employer's vault full of cash. Along the way, Frank is both guided and tormented by a televangelist (Gregory Itzin) who can see through the screen and into Frank's tortured soul.Screenwriters may not like to think about this, but the truth of cinema is a great director can salvage something watchable out of an awful script and a great script cannot survive in the hands of a bad director. Forfeit is a striking demonstration of the latter, though I'm not sure John Rafter Lee's writing was necessarily great to begin with. There's enough in the plot, characters and dialog to make me thing it as pretty good, though, until it has to pass through the positively remedial director of Andrew Shea. His work would have looked uninteresting and uninspiring in the 1970s. Compared to the kaleidoscopic imagery and breakneck narratives of the 21st century, Shea's direction is musty, mildewed and moronic. I mean, you wouldn't let this guy direct TV commercials for your local community college.Shea may not be completely to blame. There are some problems with the story that could be all Lee's responsibility. For starters, this is one of those movies that starts at the dramatic conclusion and then jumps back in time to show you how things got to that point. But what Forfeit shows you during its ending/beginning undermines the dramatic structure of all that comes after it. Imagine if you'd seen the face of Keyser Soze right away in The Usual Suspects. It wouldn't explain everything immediately, but you'd know enough that nothing coming after that could possibly be a surprise.There's also a secret connection between Frank and the televangelist that should have been revealed at the finish of the film after keeping the audience guessing about it all the way through. Instead, the secret is offhandedly given away before Forfeit is halfway over…and I'm not sure if anyone involved in the production realized it.As for Sherry Stringfield? She's cute and has a screen presence that a lot of actresses would kill for, but she probably should have never left ER. If nothing else, the extra years of network salary and residuals might have prevented her from ever having to do stuff like Forfeit to pay the bills.There are a lot of movies out there much worse than this one. That's all I can say for it, so can it really be worth your time?

When one reads reviews about this film, it could just as well be about a non kung fu action movie for all that is missing in the creative surplus that is bedazzling. First the best group of actors and casting I have ever seen who are all "unknowns" to me, except for a heavy set guard conspirator who plays it straight and does it well, too. The story line is unexpected and the "lead" has so many faces and is so calm and cool at once, and then a complete wacko. It works because we are not force fed a story line typically American, but the revelations do come back in flashbacks, in revelations which are accidental or cleverly edited. However they make it there, they work. Even the evangelist works whereas most of them are all so dumb and overdone.The film is going to be a sleeper and is going to be HUGE in France. It is very much like a combination of French directors and does not mess around with any of the modern icons who are running out of parts for DeNiro and Pacino playing devils.This is low budget and mesmerizing film making with not one bad actor. Too many young filmmakers who have no idea of the roots of films who try and be witty and forget what it takes to assemble this kind of involving production.

Frank, an ex-con, comes back trying to get back with his former girlfriend, Karen, who as it turns out, doesn't want any part of him. He has been following a television evangelist who seems as though is only preaching to him. From the start one figures there is something definitely wrong with this man as we witness him visiting Karen who is a prisoner herself now. The film then goes back to a few weeks before.Frank O'Neal has been hired by a an armored truck company that employs only former inmates. There is something shady with this firm, one realizes. Frank plots to rob them, and being canny enough, he figures a way to put the blame on everyone else including his boss. He wants to frame Karen as being the person that is really involved in the heist. Little does Frank know that Karen has a strong surprise in store for him as the film ends up.Director Andrew Shea, working on the screenplay by John Rafter Lee, delivers a film that gets the viewer involved. The film relies on Billy Burke, who plays Frank, as its main asset, and he does a good job with his character. There is also a chilling performance by Greg Itzin as the television charlatan that has captured Frank's imagination. Wayne Knight has a small part.

I saw this film at South by Southwest. It gets off to a slow start, but then I got swept up in this complicated story about a security guard and his old high school girlfriend, played by Sherry Stringfield. It's a serious drama, but there's a lot of humor. Wayne Knight, of Seinfeld fame, is great as the second-in-command of a corrupt Los Angeles armored car company. Billy Burke plays the leading role and is intense and riveting. This is an enjoyable low-budget indie with a gritty, L.A. feel. But you need to pay attention. The plot is complex, as it should be in a heist movie. All in all one of my favorite films at this year's South By Southwest.