Means to an End

Running Time: 88 min.
Directed by Brad Ellis
Written by Allen Gardner
Starring: Mark Norris, Allen Gardner, Joey Watson, Jake Warren and Rachel Duke

Reviewed: 02/15/04

By Lee Chase IV

”Means to an End” tells the story of a young man who returns to his apartment one night to find his girlfriend murdered. There are no witnesses and no evidence, and even after a year has passed, the case has not been solved. However, the young man has moved on, but his new life is interrupted when a mysterious figure surfaces with information regarding the girlfriend’s killer. This leads the young man down a path he does not want to take, but his new acquaintance does not give him a choice; he’s holding all the cards. By the end of his odyssey, the young man has done and experienced things he never expected, and learns things that will hopefully put his girlfriend’s death to rest.

The first part of the movie is pretty good. It spends time establishing the young man, named Will Reilly (Mark Norris), a student at UCLA who has plans to go to medical school and is in love with his girlfriend, Rebecca (Rachel Duke). Instead of having dinner with her, he goes to a party, and it is while he is gone that she is murdered. He seeks comfort from his neighbor, Tyler Lee (Joey Watson) and his best friend, Ben (Jake Warren). The greatest strength of this early part of the movie is how it shows the importance of friendship. I have always admired the attention to this element in the scripts of Allen Gardner, and here, we get a true sense that Will and Ben have been close for a long time.

Will has put the loss of Rebecca behind him by studying constantly and waiting tables full time. He also goes to see a shrink, which provides a few interesting scenes, although he decides he does not need to be there. But Ben worries about him since he does not mention Rebecca anymore. Even though he claims to have put it behind him, Will is still haunted by it, as we see when he sleeps with the lights on. Thinking things are getting easier for him, his past creeps back up on him when he meets David Crowe (Allen Gardner), a drug dealer who knows the identity of Rebecca’s killer. Even though he holds the key to the murder, he is not willing to give it up that easily. David wants Will to understand just what happened and why.

At this point, the movie could go two different ways. It could become a thoughtful and haunting mystery about memories of love and loss, or it could become a thriller full of standard twists and needless action. Sadly, the movie takes the latter route. As soon as David mentions that Rebecca’s killer must die, the movie jumps the rails. The David character could have been compelling, but he fails for a number of reasons. First of all, he’s not very convincing as a drug dealer. On one of his first meetings with Will, who is a complete stranger, David tells him important elements about his operation and even supplies the names of the people he works for. He’s supposed to be a user too, but he looks more like a surfer than a junkie. And during the action sequences, he does not really come off like a tough guy, even though he likes to wear wife beaters.

The phoniness of this character is enough to weigh down the second half of the movie. Both men have different motives. Will wants to put the killer in jail, while David thinks the killer deserves to die. How does David know who the killer is? I’m afraid I cannot reveal his involvement, although Will has trouble believing what he is being told. When David is able to supply some real evidence, Will begins to investigate on his own. Eventually, the two men get in over their heads, which leads to the obligatory action climax, and it includes the foot chase, the shootout, and the bloody fist fight. Instead of seeming necessary, the whole thing is overblown and overlong.

The movie is filled with twists and double crosses, but it’s hard to care about them because there are just so many. There are way too many supporting characters, many of which are dealers associated with David. They eventually begin to provide an added threat that feels tacked on. Any emotional investment in the characters is hard to hold on to, because they spend the last half of the movie bickering. It’s as if the screenplay did not really know how to develop a real relationship, so it replaced it with a series of aggressive arguments. Aside from their first scene, I think Norris and Gardner’s best scene together is the very last one in a graveyard. Each actor shows very real emotion there.

There are a number of implausible elements. I already mentioned my disbelief in the David Crowe character. In addition, I had a hard time believing Crowe would be that hard to find, since he basically shifts between two apartments the whole movie. After a series of scenes where Crowe is threatened by various people, I kept wondering why they kept him alive. Another implausible scene involves Will killing two men who attack him. Later, he says he called the police to the scene, and it’s left at that. You’re going to tell me that after killing two people, even if it was self-defense, they just let him go?

The performances are solid for the most part. Mark Norris shows a level of maturity here that is impressive. Yes, he overdoes it during the arguments, but during the quieter scenes, he is convincing as a man who is tired and confused by what he is caught up in. Allen Gardner fills his role the best it can be, which is tough since the character is not convincing. He is also at his peak during the subtle moments, particularly when he and Will first meet. The one thing I really did notice about Gardner here is that he wears the same wardrobe in almost every movie; I can’t remember how many times I’ve seen the Sugar Daddy and Tootsie Pop Tee Shirts or those boxers with the smiling face on them.

”Means to an End” was directed by Brad Ellis, and I think this is his weakest film yet. He does a good job blending all the locations together (the movie was shot in Memphis, Los Angeles, and St. Augustine), although there are places that obviously don’t match (the staircase in Tyler Lee’s apartment ruins its authenticity). Ellis is a director in love with filmmaking but watching this picture, I didn’t feel like his heart was into it. The greatest strength technically is the editing, which keeps things moving at a swift enough pace that I never grew bored. The music and songs by Memphis band Dora are the best aspect of the film, as they find a way to compliment every scene. This is proof that music can add an extra level that may not have been there before. I found their work particularly effective during Will and David’s final meeting, which is heartfelt, but is not able to make up for the lack of material the viewer has to sit through to get there.

I’m glad “Means to an End” was the second Old School film to hit DVD. They’ve gotten it out of the way and now they can move on to their more promising efforts. The picture hits DVD in a nice transfer, even though this is one of the blander looking films they’ve done. The 2.0 surround is surprisingly sharp for a 2-channel track, particularly when pumping out Dora’s excellent music.

The disc features a nice handful of extras, beginning with a feature commentary track that includes director Brad Ellis, writer and co-star Allen Gardner and editor Matt Weatherly. Like the movie, the commentary loses steam about halfway through. The first part is informative and often funny as Ellis complains about minor characters, inconsistencies and actor mess-ups. Gardner offers interesting insight into how he came up with the story and how many drafts he had to write before Ellis would shoot it. I kept wondering if he was going to mention if he made his character’s last name Crowe as a tribute to Cameron Crowe, his favorite director. From hearing him talk about the story, it sounds like Gardner wanted too much conflict in the film. However, once we hit the middle mark, the majority of the track consists of Ellis picking on Gardner, whose only real rebuttal is to mention “Halloween 1998.” During this section, Gardner more or less exposes how big his ego is, as he talks constantly about how great his contributions are and seems unwilling to accept constructive criticism. Overall, sadly, it sounds like Ellis and Gardner really wanted to make a thriller instead of a drama.

Next up are the Deleted Scenes, which I found frankly awful. The worst of the lot for me was an extended conversation between Will and David as they are waiting for a dealer to show up. Ellis offers worthy comments to these scenes, explaining why they weren’t used and how important the test screening process was in determining what needed to go. There’s an Outtake Reel, which I found cheap because they were all too staged. The disc offers two featurettes, the first which highlights shooting an alley scene. It’s fun to see the setup, but what I liked most was seeing Ellis work with the actors. This element really comes through more in the second featurette, which shows a scene that required Norris to be thrown on the floor. A Slide Show and the film’s Trailer round out the disc.

The Movie: C-
The Disc: B
Overall Grade: C+