Review
A PROBLEM WITH FEAR
Starring Paulo Costanzo, Emily Hampshire and William Garson
Directed by Gary Burns
Opens Friday, October 10
Check listings
The films of director Gary Burns always have a great premise, but sometimes that premise doesn’t always translate to screen. With A Problem With Fear, Burns comes the closest he has since his debut, The Suburbanators, to fulfilling his potential.
Set in a slightly futuristic world where people use satellite-linked wristbands to avoid danger, A Problem With Fear tells the story of Laurie (Paulo Costanzo), a young man who is afraid of everything. Usually most concerned with escalators, open spaces, the subway and commitment, his paranoia shifts when all of his fears begin to manifest around him.
With a slight science fiction bent, this film proves to be Burn’s most ambitious both in terms of scripting and production. While his confidence behind the camera is apparent in the look of the film, some of the scenarios fall slightly short of the mark. The film plays on the realization of universal fears, and while most of us have had that paranoid fantasy where you find yourself naked or trapped in an elevator or run over in traffic, A Problem with Fear doesn’t make those connections as well as it could. The film may be a bit too subtle for its own good.
Alternately the filmmaking is much more competent it has been in Burns’s previous work. Shooting on 35 mm film for the first time, his collaboration with cinematographer Stefan Ivanov has resulted in a sleek-looking film that perfectly suits the subject matter. The cold realism of the photography helps ground the film as the events spiral further and further from the everyday. The script offers some great one-liners, but the film is at its best when the action does the talking. A 10-minute interlude with almost no dialogue, where Laurie goes to confront his fears, is by far the most confident filmmaking we have seen from Burns.
The cast, for the most part, deliver as well. As Laurie, Costanzo plays the paranoia perfectly without taking the role on a spasmatic journey through repetitious Oscar-bidding. The supporting cast, which features a mix of mid-sized names and familiar Calgary faces, do an admirable job. The most questionable fit is Emily Hampshire as Laurie’s girlfriend Dot. Whether the problem is performance or casting remains to be seen, but her turn as the neurotic sidekick to a paranoid agoraphobe becomes more distracting than effective.
Ultimately, A Problem With Fear doesn’t have the impact that it could, which is distressing given the potential of the story. However there is enough clever writing to make it worth seeing, and it left me more curious as to where Burns will go next. |
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