SLIFF 2009 Review: CAT CITY

Nick (Julian Sands) is a dirty, dirty businessman. He is a very wealthy man who has been cheating on his beautiful wife Victoria (Rebecca Pidgeon) with one of her coworkers (they are both  attorneys  at the same law firm). When he gets a call from a business associate to let an  acquaintance  stay at his house, he lets a young Jonas McCaw (Alano Massi) stay with his wife while he goes out to play in Las Vegas. The only thing that he didn’t bet on was that before he left, Victoria hired a private investigator named Harold (Brian Dennehy) to find out just what her husband was up to. Obviously she did not trust him. With good reason too! He invested a great deal of money into a shady casino project that goes south, and he is now trying to get his money back.

The cast is rather entertaining with the exception of the sly, womanizing,  deceitful  Jonas. He was bland, and as a female, not at all convincing as a sexually appealing man. His character is more reminiscent of a really bad public service announcement or an after school movie that did NOT include Tori Spelling or Tiffani-Amber-Thiessen. Although low budget, the story line is rather interesting. The execution, on the other hand, is less than stellar. You simply cannot have a character as important as Jonas and have a crappy actor play the part. Brian Dennehy was robbed of more screen time as well. During the first hour he gets less than five minutes. Sad indeed.

I also noticed some voice dubbing problems throughout. I know that when you are working on a low budget, that these things can happen, but I would not have expected it with all of the great reviews that I have read about this film. T o be honest, I would have expected a much more interesting and well put together film then what I witnessed. Like I said, the storyline and most of the actors are decent, bit the main  villain  is a TERRIBLE actor! He alone ruins the whole experience of this film. That only amplifies the bad shots, horrible resolution, and bad dubbing.

If this film gets a second chance, and I really hope it does because it’s worth saving, it is in dire need of better production and a much better villain!

CAT CITY will screen at the Tivoli on Saturday, November 14th at 9:30pm and on Sunday, November 15th at 7:15pm during the 18th Annual Whitaker Saint Louis International Film Festival.