Thick

Thick is not a perfect movie. But there’s a lot to celebrate about this low budget crime drama. Namely, the fact that it’s 71 minutes long. The pacing of this film is exquisite.

The film follows the illegal dealings of Theresa James. Theresa is a successful and no-nonsense criminal. She makes her money and makes sure everyone gets paid to keep her making money. But some dirty cops get the bright idea to extort Theresa. In her personal life, Theresa has a wife named Roni who has a young son. However, Roni is cheating with bodyguard, Nina. Suddenly, Theresa’s carefully crafted inner circle all seem to want her money and perhaps, her life.

Thick is admittedly, an uneven film. A good half of the scenes in the film are pretty forgettable. Not terrible, but not remotely memorable. Sometimes the dialogue feels pretty rote. A little cliche or leaning a little too far into an exposition dump. On the other hand, some of the dialogue scenes really nail it. Scenes where there’s a level of manipulation or intimidation feel like well-polished pieces of writing. You can see where the passion in this movie is. And it’s for smart and smooth criminals fighting to keep the upper hand on each other. These scenes are really enjoyable to watch. Probably because the writer of these scenes really enjoyed writing them.

Regrettably, not all the performances are enough to match some of this genuinely good dialogue. This script could’ve really benefited from getting an established actor to make a meal of their scenes. But Thick is a little too low budget to hire such actors. So instead, a lot of the actors struggle to stay on top of the dialogue. Tia Dae gives the lead performance as Theresa. And she’s a striking woman with great screen presence. But some of the best intimidating dialogue is something a bit beyond her reach. One of her associates gives you a full Giancarlo Esposito impression for his character. And it’s the correct choice. But it’s also a choice that makes me very aware of how much better this scene would be if they had the real Giancarlo Esposito. Or, at least some actors who could deliver this dialogue with the right level of intensity.

I again need to commend this film for being 71 sweet minutes. There’s absolutely a version of Thick that’s two and a half hours long and full of constant plot twist double crosses. Luckily, that’s not the version in this reality. This is a very straight forward story that doesn’t over complicate itself. We veritably hurtle towards the final act because there’s not a constant need to complicate the plot to slow down the inevitable. Especially because the crime/thriller genre is so full of overstuffed, twisty narratives, Thick ends up being surprising in how straightforward it is. What you see actually is what you get. And what you get is a breakneck-pace crime story.

Thick is not free of problems and negatives. There’s lots the film could do better. But Thick is also full of really smart and correct decisions. The film did a lot of things well too. Especially for a low budget film, I’m really impressed with a lot of decisions made. Thick found a story they could tell within their budget. They created a fairly polished screenplay that shows strong understanding of the genre and made it into a film that doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s not a perfect film. But I have so much respect for Thick and how well it played within its means.

Overall rating: 5.7/10

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