The cheap filmstock & resultant grainy runny-color ruins what are often well-framed shots. It could've been quite a beautiful-looking film shot around Cape Cod had not the stock destroyed any sense that the cinematagraphy is any good.
The acting is adequate & it sometimes comes across as a "serious & seriouser" version of Dumb & Dumber. The two Joes (David sysocki & Sean Patrick Brennan) are likeable, & their retarded-adult dreams of becoming the town's best lawn mowing team is endearing. But the girl-ghost (Tracy Griffith) drags the story down with her poorer performance & her miss-firing storyline.
Yet the film shows so much directorial talent on a shoestring (the whole film cost only $35,000) that it's too bad it never got attention even on a festival circuit or among arthouse film critics.
If I'd had an opportunity to see it it late in 1995 or early 96 when it had its first few showings before it vanished for a long while, I would've predicted a real career for the director on the horizon. A decade later, seems not much has as yet happened for him, alas.
copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl
|