All Alone ( Jon Cellini, 2010): USA

Reviewed by Rhys Davis. Viewed at the Lobero Theater, SBIFF 2011.

One of the semi-disappointing moments in this year’s Santa Barbara Film Festival came when I decided to see All Alone directed by Jon Cellini. Before I get started I will say that this film did have some positives and delivered some suspenseful, and comedic moments, but overall I was not a fan in the end . All Alone takes place in Los Angeles with two couples who decide get out of the city and take a camping trip to get away from all the chaos of the city, and the mounting stress on their relationships. As the story develops we find out that not all is what it seems, and that there are ill intentions between two of the characters.

Maggie (Mandy Levin), the main character, who is alone inside, and is very insecure with herself. Her husband Ben (Brice Williams) is a school teacher who is tired of his boring life and living with his wife. The two quarrel about bills because Maggie forgot to deposit Ben’s check on time, and Maggie is upset with Ben because he shows no emotion to her. The other couple consists of Alex (Suzy Cote) and Kyle (David Jones), who also have their own argumentative scene in the beginning of the film. Together these beginning scenes immediately put me off. The lack of camera angles and editing made it feel more like a stage play than a motion picture. The set design, the lack of camera angles and editing,  and no convincing acting really threw me off in Alex and Kyle’s scene.

Then we get to the real interesting part. Maggie invites Alex and Kyle over for dinner one night. At dinner the two couples decide that there relationships are strained, work has its mounting pressures, and the city can be constricting, so they go camping for the weekend to get away from it all. When the two couples arrive at the camping site we learn that Ben and Kyle have been having an affair with each other, and that Ben has developed a sinister plan to dispose of his wife Maggie and Kyle’s husband Ben. Plans go all wrong when a hippie, nomadic, vegan girl is camping by their site. Ben and Alex panic because now there is a witness nearby and there plan is exposable.

Maggie and the new girl Birch bond at the campsite, while Ben and Kyle go hiking up the steep mountain pass.  It looks as if Maggie may have found a true friend, but Alex blames Birch of stealing money out of her wallet so that Birch will leave, and the plan may go according as planned. Birch leaves in anger of being blamed, and while she is walking along the path she witnesses Ben push Kyle off a cliff where he falls to his death. Birch runs back to warn Maggie but Ben is running back to the campsite as well. When Ben finds out that Birch witnessed what he did you can imagine what happens in the last twenty minutes.

As i said before there were some funny parts and some thrilling scenes but overall i didn’t appreciate it. The climax in the end is tasteless, and could have been much better than a classless seduction. I understand that there budget was very small, but what they put together could have been much better