First foray into filmmaking needs work

Don McKay is writer/director Jake Goldberger’s feature film debut. The independent film premiered almost a year ago at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival and is finally getting a wider release in Los Angeles, New York and Boston this week. Starring Thomas Haden Church (Sideways), Elizabeth Shue (Leaving Lost Vegas) and Melissa Leo (Frozen Rivers), the film is an odd, eerie and humorous tale of secrets, lies and murder.

Don McKay (Church) is a down-and-out janitor who receives a mysterious letter from his high school girlfriend, Sonny (Shue), informing him that she is dying and wants him to come see her. Don rushes to her side but finds that she has changed dramatically from the last time he saw her, when he left his hometown 25 years ago. Unsure of how to act when everyone he encounters evaluates him with suspicious eyes, Don slowly begins to unravel the truth behind Sonny’s plea for him to return and, as a result, has to come to terms with the current condition of his own life.

Goldberger’s admiration for the twisted humor and outrageous storytelling techniques of the Coen brothers is clearly evident, but he has difficultly blending multiple genres. McKay starts off with an overly kitschy feel, and many of its scenes are laugh-out-loud funny, especially those between Don and Samuel (M. Emmet Walsh), the hard-of-hearing cabdriver who Don befriends.

It’s often unclear, however, whether the audience is meant to laugh. The humor is not pushed far enough to counter the film’s underlying creepiness.

Steve Bramson’s delicate, moody score is present throughout the opening sequences, which is often misleading when the film is supposedly not taking itself seriously. Similarly, the scenes in the film that are supposed to be the most disturbing feel limp, without any real sense of danger or fear.

The cinematography in Don McKay, as executed by Phil Parmet, employs the film noir technique of combining stark darks and lights to create constant tension. Nonetheless, the overall look of the film is uninspiring, and the fact that it is a low-budget indie could not be more obvious.

The film’s major weakness is its lack of a strong protagonist. Considering he lends his name to the film’s title, we expect Don to possess a particularly compelling personality. Instead, he functions primarily as a prop, moving as robotically as a game token in a board game. Granted, as a lumbering, lonely man with nothing to live for, we cannot expect him to portray much chutzpah, but his glazed, emotionless expression quickly loses its ironic appeal.

Church does an excellent job of squinting and looking confused for the majority of the film, but he inevitably becomes the least interesting element of the story. The strong comedic thrust Church has displayed in past films is not present here, and, as a result, the actor loses most of his charm.

The story is really propelled by the disturbing antics of Sonny, who is simultaneously intolerable and infectious. Her character is bipolar, alternating between shrill and overly sweet. Shue masters Sonny’s two-faced nature so well that we long for more screen time with her, just to see what she’ll do next. Unfortunately, Sonny’s frantic displays of attachment to Don also make us question why in the world Don decides to stay by her side. He does provide an explanation near the end of the film, but his reasoning is so ludicrous you’ll want to clock him on the head.

The character of Marie (Leo), meanwhile, is a villain pulled right out of Hitchcockian lore — indeed, she could pass as the identical twin of Mrs. Danvers, the sinister housekeeper in Rebecca.

Marie gives Don the obligatory melodramatic evil eye at the end of each of her scenes and lurks conspicuously in the background of important conversations between Don and Sonny. Leo’s performance is spot-on, straddling the right level of ridiculous and eerie to make her scenes simultaneously funny and deeply disturbing.

By the film’s conclusion, we have taken a long look at a man who is so haunted by his past that he has built walls of illusion around himself. The question that lingers is how Don will reshape his life to make sense of the madness he’s encountered and finally figure out what it is that he wants.

Goldberger’s script is an excellent character examination, but his attempt to combine drama with a tense horror film is ultimately a bit clumsy. In addition, the script suffers from some undeveloped characters (such as Don’s childhood friend Otis) and a couple unresolved plot points, which ultimately leave the viewer feeling unsatisfied.

Don McKay is an admirable first filmmaking attempt, but Goldberger still has a long way to go before he masters his skills at directing.