Show Me

This is definitely a sharp one, and if you make it through the first twenty minutes, you will absolutely be pulled in through the last minute. It's intelligent, and it's a thriller -- the kind of thriller that is not blood and guts and unnecessary violence, but rather is intelligent and realistically disturbing.

Sarah is a successful, professional, sexy woman on her way to celebrate her tenth anniversary in a cabin by a lake. On the way out of town, however, two street teens let themselves into her car, hold her at gunpoint, and demand that she drives them to wherever she's going. Thus begins a "vacation" that will change everything, forever.

With an underlying message of "there are two kinds of people in the world, those who need to be rescued, and those who want to rescue," the plot takes many turns that are intelligently connected and have surprising secrets (who knew it would turn into a lesbian story?) that make all three characters both heroes and victims.

Show Me is a story about a seemingly happy and perfect yuppy colliding paths with two distraught teenagers left on their own and yearning to get out. What results is a gripping, thrilling, mind game of a movie.

Cassandra Nicolaou is a writer and director with a talent for exploring the inner lives of her characters. Much of what she creates is on the surface: an equal part lies beneath the facade and reveals personal histories through the looks in eyes and the silences she encourages from her actors.

Affluent mid-thirties Sarah (the very fine Michelle Nolden) is off from the city for a rendezvous with her lover Sam, complete with special grocery shopping and wine cases to supply them for a little getaway in their isolated mountain cabin in the woods. But when traffic snarls slows her luxury vehicle to a stop and her temper is frayed, two street kids approach, pull the squeegee scam and when rejected by Sarah, they sulk on the sidewalk and Sarah, remorseful for her behavior to them, offers them money. They accept the money and jump into the car, brandishing weapons, and treat Sarah like a hostage, instructing her to drive them out of the city. Desperate but cool, Sarah receives a cellphone call from Sam, indicating the remote cabin meeting - and the atmosphere changes. Now the girl, Jenna (the beautiful and talented Katharine Isabelle) and the boy, Jackson (Kett Turton, another fine young actor) are in complete control, and the three head to the cabin. Once in the picturesque cabin by a lake Jenna and Jackson tie Sarah to a chair and go about trying to find all possible cash and goods to steal from Sarah.

The 'kidnapping' gradually unveils secrets on the part of all three and slowly the trio, isolated and after attempted escapes by Sarah, begin to bond. The events then fall pall mall, video tapes of Sarah's private life reveal an aspect Jenna never suspected yet longs to understand and experience, Sarah and Jackson play a cat and mouse game that includes a degree of intimacy, an 'intruder' appears with dire consequences, and the film tumbles to a painful ending for each of the trio (now duo).

The film begins and ends with a voice over stating 'There are two kinds of people in the world: those who need to be rescued, and those who want to rescue.' And the plot in retrospect examines that statement thoroughly. Writer/director Nicolaou has the integrity to incorporate gender identities, childhood needs and adoption policies, and the differences in reference points between those with money and those on the street in subtle ways, careful to not make judgments but to only reveal similarities. The cast is very good and if the script is a bit repetitive in phrases over used, that is the way young people communicate and to script it otherwise would make the dialogue false. This is a fine little thriller, more for the mind but also for the physical violence aficionados. For this viewer, this is an underrated movie. Grady Harp, September 06

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie - it has the feel of a low-budget, independent movie, yet the cast was credible and the story, though not unique, pulled me in and made for an interesting watch. The story starts with yuppie, 30-ish Sarah (attractive Michelle Nolden) who is stuck in traffic, and encounters a pair of loutish teenagers, who try to 'squeegee' her of some money. She rebuffs them, but later has a change of heart and offers them some money. Before she knows it, both teens hop into her car and demand a ride. Jenna (Katharine Isabelle of Ginger Snaps) and Jackson (Kett Turton) overhear a cellphone conversation between Sarah and her lover Sam, and decide they want more out of Sarah, threatening her with a knife and gun and demanding she drive them to her rendezvous spot, a cottage located in a remote mountainous area.

Before long, the trio are engaged in a strange cat-and-mouse game, and the role of cat and mouse changes over the course of the movie. It was interesting to see this psychological drama play out as initially, one can't tell when one of the three characters is going to gain the upper hand, though ultimately the story does sink into predictability. Michelle Nolden shines in the role of yuppie Sarah, who might be harboring some secrets of her own, and Katharine Isabelle portrays the angsty teenager with a penchant for cutting herself very well. The story also deals with various issues such as abandonment, loneliness, adoption, lesbianism, etc. I'd rate it a fairly engaging psychological drama, though I felt let down by the ending which was rather anti-climactic.

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