Evenhand Movie Review:


Synopsis:

“You can’t be everybody’s friend. Remember that.”

“EvenHand” follows the antics of two officers, newly transferred Rob Francis (Sage), and cocksure Ted Morning (Dawes) on their beat.
The movie is set in a fictional town in Texas, where the daily routine usually consists of chastising domestics and juveniles.
However, there is a sinister undertone to the proceedings, which unravels into something more than the drudgery they are used to.

Unlike many others movies of this ilk, “Evenhand’s” action is not set in the foreboding ‘big city’ - instead the characters work the beat the fictional sleepy town of San Lovisa, situated on the Texan border.

San Lovisa is a place where felons have to wear sandwich boards around the streets proclaiming their crime, and plush blue duck toys are handed out to traumatised crime victims to make them feel better. Unique, oh yes. The location is almost a character in its own right!

The opening sequence is actually a crucial vision of the future, taken from further into the film as one of the main characters, Francis, the amiable one, chats seemingly innocuously to a woman involved in a hit and run.

It is later re-iterated how he came to be attending this incident, and picks up again from that point to bring the tale to its tragic but cathartic conclusion, or rather, conclusions, as there are a few.

Dawes plays the innocent, and as yet un-initiated ‘new guy in town’ Francis, like he’d been a cop all his life.

Francis tends to do things by the book at first, but his stronger side is gradually revealed as he gains in confidence. In a scene where Officer Morning, (played with dynamism and glee by Bill Sage), dares to patronise him, he utters casually, “I’m not a rookie, I’m a transfer.”

This seems to be the point at which the previously cordial pair begins to gel, with amusing results, although they still respectfully disagreee on some matters of the job.

We get the opportunity to learn more about the pair as they travel from mundane call to call, and in the confines of their cop car the chatter comes easily, and their offbeat humour is engaging.
Both actors are very natural, and the fact they are relatively unknown brings a bit of indie cool to the proceedings.

Francis and Morning are in many ways opposites, as is often the way in buddy movies, but this isn’t an ordinary buddy movie and the elements of story, setting and characters are distinctive, unusual but still believable in a Coen-esque way. The supporting cast also put in effortlessly authentic performances, equally as well – drawn as the two leads.

The local characters, druggies, vandals and battling partners, trigger a cataclysm of events that lull one into a false sense of security and then shatters it in many different ways. But all of the story strands come together eventually, paced by a very cool soundtrack of alternative, dirty rock.

The actions taken by the bored cops aren’t always the appropriate ones, and the moral seems to be that no –one can predict what the most trivial of gestures might lead to.

‘Evenhand’ is a laconic but insightful look at cops on the beat, and although it inhabits a crowded genre, it doesn’t walk the already well-trodden path and prefers to take an offbeat and witty approach. As a result it is a delight to watch.
Pierson should be very proud, and judging by the quality of this, only his second stab at directing a feature, there is much more to look forward to.

Terresa Gaffney

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