Race You to the Bottom

So, this was another movie on my Netflix instant binge. Netflix said it was a independent drama about two best friends who give in to their growing attraction for each other, despite the fact that they both have boyfriends. It was a small movie from 2005 from a first time director, Russell Brown. The lead actress won an award for outstanding actress in a feature film at a small festival in Los Angeles.

The film picks up with two best friends/lovers, Maggie and Nathan, in the midst of an affair they are having together as they travel to Napa for a weekend trip as Nathan is a travel reporter. Yup, that's about it.

The story surprisingly picks up after the affair has already begun, which was somewhat disappointing. I am a girl after all and do enjoy the stories about the tension between two almost lovers. Sadly, we missed that in this movie. The course of the movie takes place over a single weekend, something else I think that hinders the story. We really don't get to learn much about the characters. We're thrown into the middle of the relationship and only get a couple of tiny cutaways to how they met. Both of the characters were self-centered and really could see nothing wrong with their affair or how they were treating their significant others. It was okay because Nathan was really gay, right? It wasn't that convincing. The plot action felt rather forced. Apparently they'd been taking these getaways quite often but this one was different, because . . . well there was no reason really, but somehow they destroyed everything in the meantime. Unfortunately, the ending felt rather thrown together. I feel like I'm being too negative. The story had a lot of potential. I think if they would've increased the time span of the plot and/or given us more character development, it would've worked better. Some of the dialogue was rather witty and insightful.

The movie was filmed quite nicely. It gave us that bohemian view of L.A. that, while somewhat fictional, is nice to look at. The shots were framed nicely and the colors were beautiful in the locations. The cinematography was above par compared to the other elements of the movie.

Amber Benson, who plays Maggie, won an award for her performance. Out of the characters, she was easily the most believable. Unfortunately, with microbudget movies sometimes some of the quality must be sacrificed. All of the actors were very good-looking, however they just weren't as believable as the characters they were trying to portray. Cole Williams, who plays Nathan, didn't quite pull off the self-confident charisma of his character. He gave a much more vulnerable portrayal which did not fit with the dialogue/actions of his character.

I think it was a nice effort with lots of potential. It was almost as if there was an argument behind the scenes about whether they wanted to do a run-of-the-mill romcom or a quirky indie romance. It just didn't pan out. I personally, didn't see the motives behind the character's actions most of the time and therefore the believability of the movie was lost. "I like my women aggressive and my men passive".