WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
First, the Recap:
Pushed to the brink, teetering on the edge, with no one to pull you back. It’s a place we would never wish to find ourselves, for it would usually follow that anything precious to us, anything of value, has either been stolen away or propelled into the distance by our own actions. So when you’ve hit bottom, how can it get any worse? The nighttime has arrived, and a still-running car parked out on the street holds within it a man named Frank (Joris Jarsky) who’s in deep turmoil. More than evidently out of sorts and utilizing drugs as a source of “energy” and an apparent “confidence booster”, he looks towards the house across the road to his left.
A moment of decision passes, and exiting the car, Frank becomes distracted from whatever purpose he intended when noises of a struggle faintly emanate from the home. With his badge revealed as he pulls his sidearm out, Frank warily approaches the front door, which is already open a crack. As he slowly edges the door further ajar, he is met with a form of resistance he isn’t anticipating, responding in kind out of both surprise and instinct. Waiting for calm to ensue, Frank enters the home to find the aftermath of his choice along with a woman (Talya Carroll) and a young girl (Jaidyn Carroll). As events turn panicked and desperate, an even more sudden change in circumstances lays the foundations of what becomes a shattered life and the elusive forgiveness Frank yearns for.
Next, my Mind:
The sobering and so often life-altering consequences of one’s past exploits come screaming back with a vengeance for one ex-cop in this highly impactful and shockingly affecting 8-minute short film effort from writer/director Mark O’Brien. Taking a hard look, even if much by general conjecture, at the path traveled by one man who it becomes immediately evident has fallen far, lost much, and yet potentially longs for redemption, the narrative wastes no time illustrating this from the very first moments to the pivotal and heartbreaking finale that showcases exoneration and absolution are not always easily handed out when other’s lives are so overtly affected by his bad judgment and lack of commitment towards their ultimate well-being. Then, having to face the realities created by such blatantly poor choices is a concept quite honestly slammed home with an almost brutal efficiency, which only makes the film’s intentionally harsh moments stand out all the better, driving their message home with profound weight on the viewer. Additionally, the reverberations of Frank’s situation follow him beyond it, leading to an encounter that will yet again shape his life forever in the wake of what transpired, executed with a stirring sequence that ends the film. The excellent cinematography here does a superb job in keeping certain elements out of the viewer’s eye as the proceedings play out until the best possible instant, therefore aiding in governing and eliciting the desired emotional response to optimum potency. As so much of indie cinema does with character-driven narratives such as this, it prompts you to think overall about how we as human beings behave, perhaps not at all believing or accepting the fact that the past can come back to haunt us in ways that will not only affect us, but those around us as well. A bitter pill to swallow, but true nonetheless, and how this manifests here makes it all a very cautionary tale indeed.
Jarsky does a wonderful job in portraying the deeply flawed ex-cop Frank, a man already battling the demons of what we can only fathom is a less than stellar reputation while on the force, perhaps bent beyond repair, and now suffering the ramifications of a career cut short. Turning to the substance-based vices to “ease” his pain, it becomes evident there’s a purpose in the visit to the home he finds himself parked across from, even in a state of drug-fueled “serenity”. Yet, upon realizing more might be occurring at his destination than expected, his awareness snaps him back to reality and hence causes him to confront the situation head-on, albeit with initial sense of caution, only to be present as it all spirals downward and sends him on an even more guilty conscious-heavy journey. There’s such a flux in Frank’s demeanor and state of being within the film’s abbreviated runtime, and Jarsky navigates this with an emotive prowess that one cannot help but be emotionally influenced and struck by throughout the story presented. Talya Carroll plays one of two other central and quite critical roles here in playing the woman whose home has apparently been invaded and that Frank comes to the aid of, though the outcome of his arrival has a decidedly decisive and wrenching outcome on her part in the proceedings, deftly played out by Carroll to full effect. Likewise, the same can be said for Jaidyn Carroll as the young girl also occupying the home and who becomes an even greater key player in the happenings to a similarly emotionally-charged end that manifests in the moment and possibly in the fallout of the occurrences that have transpired. All of it is well enacted by Carroll. There is also a key supporting appearance by Georgina Reilly that adds a real emotional punch to the film’s finale.
In total, “Threshold” carries its literal and figurative meanings the title implies and the film presents with an edgy resolve that paints the dark side of imperfect decisions and the culminations of all that they entail with a no-nonsense delivery that truly might make one consider choices before taking action in the present, because you never know how it will then affect the future.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
