Let Me Die Quietly
Personally I cannot imagine how hard it would be to make a low budget film. You are trying to make a movie that can compete with the bigger budget films yet has none of the money behind it. Still, you have to look at your limitations and make them your assets. If you have no money then why try to do a special effects heavy story? Why have two dozen sets? Keep it simple and play to your strengths. These qualities are all on hand in Let Me Die Quietly, a modern day noir film that focuses more on the story than on effects there is no money to fund.
Mario is a lost man, a man driven by lust, by self-doubt, and by a fear of things he sees and feels but cannot understand. Mario is an empath that sees and feels murders when he comes in contact with places and people who have that stain of blood to them. These views drive him to a psychiatrist who doesn’t seem to help and toward a dangerous lifestyle of excess so he can numb the pain of what he sees and feels. Mario’s pain only seems to ease a little when he meets a Gabrielle, a young woman who also senses things and with her he finally feels there may be some light left in the world. What he doesn’t see though is that Gabrielle is working with someone to betray Mario and use his perceived gift against him and unless Mario can foretell his own fate then he may end up just like the victims he sees – another nameless body in a city full of ghosts.
I have to hand it to the filmmakers here because like I mentioned above, the biggest mistake that low budget directors make is to try to do too much with too little. Their ambition outweighs their common sense. Too often I see movies that are an utter joke because the people behind tried to make a Hollywood movie on an off Broadway budget. Let Me Die is well made and well shot and is not bad in any way but that doesn’t make it good. The acting is pure noir and that pushes things a bit much. Everything is too muted and too slow moving. The acting is fair here, with the actors doing the best with what they have. The real problem is the story and writing, which are just not there. There is a lot here but none of it seems to really find a place or beat. In the end the film feels boring and just too slow. And for me, there are too many loose ends that are left to blow in the wind.
From what I have been getting for review this isn’t bad at all. It is melodramatic as heck, with an awful score, but if you have an interest in noir and for more muted, thoughtful films this has something to offer. For me it was just not enough of one thing or another to really keep me invested. A fair effort, and a promising look at some actors and a filmmakers who, with some honing and better scripts, might do some really strong work in the future.
6 out of 10
MEEP!
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