The Charge

Everyone you trust has the power to betray you.

The Case

David Dailey (Gil Bellows, Ally McBeal) is the No. 1 afternoon radio personality in Louisville, KY. He has made a career out of playing the good guy and maintaining a wholesome image of success and happiness with his society matron wife Susan (Kim Raver, 24). When he discovers a potentially damaging secret about his spouse, David starts to come unglued. Next thing he knows, a prominent political figure friend is charged with child pornography. Then strange notes start showing up on his car, and at his work. They spell out simple words ("Grace," "Might") with certain letters highlighted in red. When he's arrested for drunk driving, David calls a fast acquaintance named Melody (Jennifer Westfeldt. Kissing Jessica Stein), a woman he met while on a remote broadcast. They become close, but not really lovers. Melody is still gun-shy from her previous marriage and won't even accept her rich rocker boyfriend Sean's (Christian Kane, Angel) recent proposal. Sean does not handle the breakup well and he starts following Melody. He grows concerned, then angry, when he spots her with Dailey. Hoping to save his marriage, our DJ tries to reconcile with his spouse. She's too demanding, though, and there's still the stalker to worry about. Both David and Melody hope whoever is terrorizing them will keep their distance, but it seems death is the only way this insane individual will be happy.

Keep Your Distance has so many good things going for it that it's really a shame when a single element undermines the entire film. Writer/director Stu Pollard shows a real flair behind the camera, turning languid Louisville, Ky., into quite the hotbed of sexual and psychological intrigue. He makes the sleepy Southern city seem positively metro. This is, of course, in large part to his completely capable cast. This proficient company of excellent actors features several familiar faces (Stacy Keach, Gil Bellows) and some up and coming indie icons (Jennifer Westfeldt, Christian Kane), all of whom work tirelessly to bring Pollard's elemental dialogue to life. Though this is obviously a low-budget feature, there is nary a hint of amateurishness present. This is a completely professional looking and feeling production. So what's the item that keeps this film from really succeeding, the element or factor that stops the movie from being memorable? The answer is simple: story. Indeed, Keep Your Distance has one of the most pedestrian plots ever created. Sure the characterization inside the narrative may be dense and diverse, with nearly everyone dealing with multiple levels of personal and public problems, but that doesn't mean we want to follow this flaccid faux thriller. Indeed about two thirds of the way through the film, we just want all the intrigue to be over.

Pollard obviously believes he is creating a post-modern potboiler. He places his seemingly happy heroes and heroines in unbelievable situations and then sits back and watches as they simmer. On occasion we care, simply because the scenario strikes us as familiar or formulaic. However, Keep Your Distance offers no real surprises. Instead, it uses the notion of an unseen stalker, a collection of red-herring suspects, and a great deal of cinematic fidgeting to arrive at its painfully obvious denouement. Indeed, one of this movie's main weaknesses is the final flaccid reveal. Without giving too much away, let's just say that the antagonist involved had to have intimate access to the person they are bothering, a motive for committing their crimes, and a connection to the subplot involving a congressional candidate accused of child pornography. Once you've waded through all the possibilities, one person is plainly guilty. Yet it takes Keep Your Distance 80 minutes before we're proven right. Heck, his death-obsessed antics make him a primary focus almost immediately. While it does flirt with delivering a determined twist, the climax is more or less predetermined. There just has to be a chest-beating confrontation between radio host and reprobate, and some manner of manipulative maneuver will occur to allow one of them to get the upper hand. Sadly, that's exactly what happens.

Indeed, with a smarter story, Keep Your Distance would be very good. Pollard easily keeps his interlocking situations straight and we never get confused over character or connection. Louisville looks great, with his camera catching the city in all its bluegrass beauty. As stated before, the cast is completely gung-ho, giving it their all in defense of some rather routine discussions. Even with the lesser narrative threads, we do feel some manner of empathy for the individuals on screen. Dailey's broken marriage strikes a chord, especially since his shrewish wife is not beyond defending her new lifestyle choices. Melody also makes us care, simply because she appears so wounded and vulnerable most of the time. Indeed, if Pollard had scuttled all the stalker material and just focused on a story involving a famous man, his failing marriage, and the open and honest woman that one day walks into his life, Keep Your Distance would be a much better movie. Something about the whole unknown assailant angle is awkward and ineffectual. Since we never sense any real danger (are we still supposed to be afraid of cut out letters pasted on paper?) and never trust that our characters are concerned, there is no suspense or serious level of dread. By the finish, we just want closure. We could care less who did it. That's because it's story, not a myriad of other novice filmmaker fumbles, which hurts this otherwise harmless movie.

With a big media push from Monarch Films, one would expect that the DVD of Keep Your Distance would be overloaded with extras. Well, it is, but there's not a lot of meat inside the many added content entrees. There are amiable outtakes, a few unnecessary deleted scenes, an alternate ending that was gladly left on the cutting room floor, and an EPK style Behind the Scenes featurette that has cast and crew pimping the production as the second coming of cinema. It's all very genial and jolly, but we don't get a lot of insight into what it took to make the movie. That is left to Pollard's commentary, a nice, in-depth track. True, Pollard does not apologize for his film, but he shows how persistence and approaching the right people can lead to a full-length feature film. As for the technical specs, the image looks amazing. The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is terrific, loaded with color and atmospheric ambience. On the sound side, we get a choice between the standard Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 and a 5.1 Surround remix. With its directional elements and spatial separation, the multi-channel offering is the way to go.

It is unusual for a low-budget independent film to fail on a narrative level. Usually the slapdash acting or clueless direction does the damage and sometimes, the dialogue can make decent ideas seem downright dumb. In the case of Keep Your Distance, it's a tale of the tale. Had it figured out a better story to tell, this would be a wonderful, if minor, movie. As it stands, it's a well-cast creation that never delivers the percolating plot it promises.

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