Disc Reviews

MacGyver (v) To act in an extremely resourceful manner. To utilize everyday items in unconventional ways to achieve a difficult task. I predict it will not be long before you can open your trusty copy of Webster’s and find this character has officially entered our lexicon. There is little doubt but that it is an unofficial part of it now. Crossing over from the realm of pop culture and into our language is a phenomenal achievement for a television show.

I came to the MacGyver party rather late. Like everyone else on the planet, I was certainly aware of the show and the clever abilities of the lead character. Still, with so many other shows to watch, I never saw a complete episode. Then came Stargate SG-1. This was another series I at first avoided. I thought the original film was OK, but nothing I’d care to see week in and week out. One day while my wife was taking our neighbor’s dog to the vet I was bored and sat down to an episode on Showtime. I was hooked, not only on the series, but the characters, along with their alter-ego actors. Richard Dean Anderson I found most compelling. I must admit to confusing him at first with the Richard Anderson of The Six Million Dollar Man fame (Oscar). Finally I sat down to some MacGyver on DVD.

This was a peculiar one, I tell you; if I had to compare it to other films, I would put it in league with Napoleon Dynamite or The Good Girl, in regard to the way the story was told. Neither films are ones that I hold in high esteem; however, despite the dreary way that the story dragged on, I still found myself mildly interested in the story progression. Towards the middle, that is, the beginning was a bit of a snore. The majority of the film plays out within a convenience store during the graveyard shift. The main character, Tania, is the only one usually on shift, and we get to see just how boring her shifts can be. Every now and then we are treated to other characters such as the store manager Rog, or Tania’s little brother Pi, or the regional manager Dean, who has come to the store to perform an evaluation of Rog. Tania’s ultimate goal is to save enough money for a trip to Surfer’s, an amusement park, for brother and herself. I credit the character’s dedication to that goal, as it appears to be the driving force behind the plot.

Intertwined between scenes of Tania’s sometimes tedious shifts is her brother’s descent as he falls in with the wrong crowd and starts using drugs. We do not see a great deal of this subplot, and truthfully I believe that to be a mistake. The fact is the brief time spent on this fact is just a sample, enough to pique interest, and I think that a few additional minutes of the runtime should have been devoted to this subplot. The scenes we see make the character unlikeable, because all we see him do is lie, steal, and abuse drugs. The character needed more depth if it was going to resonate with audience. I think a scene showing some inner turmoil, perhaps showing him considering the advice that his sister had given him, would have gone a long way in establishing this character’s likeability.

I feel obligated to say that I somewhat saw the ending for this one coming. Maybe not all the details, but there were some clear signs from the beginning that pointed me in the direction of how the film was going to conclude. However, as I’ve been told some many times in my not-so- long life, it is not about where you end up but how you get there. In the case of this film, the journey is quite the experience. The film opens with a bit of a flash-forward which comes off a bit disorienting at first, because we don’t really know the context for the type of incident which has occurred. Slowly I was able to sort of put the pieces together. A man walking around the apartment was a cop, and he was at the house of the victim familiarizing himself with the details of the crime. The flash-forward doesn’t drag on, which is a plus, given that in truth it wasn’t very interesting, and my interest was beginning to wane. From there we are introduced to our central character, Jacob, although he prefers to go by Nicks (his last name).

A couple things about Nicks become clear very early on: he was a soldier in the United States Army, he has returned home from service, and he is haunted by something that happened to him during his service overseas. Nicks leaves a relatively quiet life; he works the night shift at a theater as a projectionist; he is very enthusiastic about film, as he regularly has film developed at a local establishment, and he frequents a local dinner usually just for coffee. It becomes evident that Nicks doesn’t sleep. In fact throughout the film I don’t believe we ever see him sleep. The one thing Nicks tends to do that strays from the norm is to frequent the same prostitute regularly, it would seem. This appears to be the character’s only relationship of substance, as it is obvious that he desire more from the relationship than just sex.

Grace takes a refreshing approach to unfolding the story; it gets right to the point. When Grace is introduced, she is right in the thick of things, waking up alone half-naked on a beach after a night of excess. She is shown some kindness by a stranger who wastes no time letting her know that she has been where Grace has been and offers her the opportunity to change. Now, naturally, this is too easy; any audience member would see through that. The one thing everyone knows about life is that though as human beings we have the capacity to change, we tend not to do it until something forces our hand; we need a catalyst, and fortunately the film provides a great one: the threat of jail time.

OK, OK, albeit the threat of jail time is a bit cliche when it comes to forcing someone’s hand, it is arguably the best way to get someone to do the desired action; otherwise police would have to find a new tactic to get criminals to testify against one another. Grace is ordered to attend mandatory Alcoholics Anonymous sessions to help her get a handle on her problem. As to be expected, she resists at first. In this area the film does not strike any new chords, Grace repels in your typical ways: hostility, avoidance, etc. However, during this period it is where the supporting cast becomes important, especially those we come in contact with through the mandatory AA sessions. For it is their addition that helps move the plot along.