“JUNCTURE” (2008)

Starring: Kristine Blackport, John Hutton, Bill LeVasseur, Jason Coviello, Andrew Porter, Nadiya A. Jackson & Jennifer Mabry
Written by Robert Gosnell
Directed by James Seale

Polly Staffle Rating: ****

“And I sat in regret of all the things I’ve done. For all that I’ve blessed and all that I’ve wronged. In dreams until my death, I will wander on.”
– Chris Cornell, “Like a Stone” (Audioslave)

Recently while playing the highly recommended board game “Loaded Questions” with friends and family, a question came up about being on a plane that you knew was going to crash. The hypothetical dilemma was since you knew this was going to happen and you could have anybody in the world sitting next to you, who would you pick? While watching James Seale’s “Juncture” I thought back to this question. No, the film isn’t an airplane disaster or “Final Destination” type film, but it is about knowing that the Grim Reaper is coming soon.

Anna Carter, a successful business woman and morally upstanding citizen, is terminally ill. She has advanced brain cancer. Chemo and radiation is no longer an option. She may have as little as two months to live, three at the most her doctor says. Crippling headaches and seizures start to bother her more and more often.

With the time she has left, Anna could make sure and do and see things that she never has before. She could have sex with anyone and everyone without a worry of diseases or future consequences. She could try every drug there is and drink 24 hours a day. She could spend her final days with loved ones or if she doesn’t have any, she could give love one last try. So what does Anna do? She dabbles with some of the mentioned possibilities, but mostly becomes a pistol-packing vigilante. Yeah, Anna might not have long to live, but she could still kick your ass. And if you’re a doer of bad things and the justice system has been lenient on you, she’ll see to it that you get to hell a lot faster than she does.

This isn’t the first time Anna has been dealt a horrendous hand by life. Her mom, dad and sister were murdered when she was a junior in high school. Though she hides her pain, the scars from her past run deep. An internet guru/playboy Jonathan Lamont took the teenaged Anna under his wing and sent her through business school. Now she runs his foundation that funds programs to help unfortunate children. But success, money and good deeds still haven’t helped her heal.

Taking a page from a classic episode of “Masterminds,” Anna uses her job as a front for her new hobby as a dark angel of justice. Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Denver are among the cities Anna flies to in order to face down demons. Child molesters, cold blooded killers, and various other menaces to society are treated to visits by Anna. After each meeting with those on her hit list, another file is placed in the shredder and on she moves to the next monster. Slowly friends and coworkers begin to get suspicious, the police start to close in and Anna begins to second guess herself. All the while death is creeping up on her.

“Juncture,” released by MTI Video, is a fantastic little movie. I’m a huge fan of revenge and vigilante films, and this is easily the best one I have seen in a while. The story is stronger than the recent films “Death Sentence” or “The Dark Knight.” This isn’t mean spirited like those. If I had to compare it to anything, it’s more along the lines of “The Brave One,” but it even tops that good Neil Jordan film starring Jodie Foster. The acting here is solid, the directing is stylistic, the images are visually appealing and the soundtrack is very atmospheric. I’m not saying that “Juncture” is perfectly executed by any means, but as far as complaints, surely they would have been cleared up had this indie been produced with a budget on par with those three I’ve already mentioned.

And as far as Anna Carter goes, she is great character played exceptionally well by Kristine Blackport, who reminds me of a cross between Jennifer Jason Leigh (“The Quickie”) and Shawnee Smith (“Saw III”). She’s strong and vengeful and could hang with the cinematic likes of Jack Carter (“Get Carter”) or Eric Draven (“The Crow”). But she’s a whole lot sexier and extremely fragile as well. I was completely transfixed by Anna, rooting for her, while also fearing for her.

One of the things that really separates this film from the vigilante pack is there’s a constant internal conflict in Anna’s head. She works for good in her day job, pushing pens and sitting behind a desk, and by night she works, not for good, but for what she sees as justice, pumping bullets into the heart and head of those that commit unspeakable acts. But Anna knows what she’s doing isn’t exactly right. She’s not on some righteous God trip, playing judge, jury and executioner for fun. So she mostly targets criminals that have already been convicted and locked away for some time and she backs away when she feels the kill will do more harm than good. She also knows she can’t bring back her parents and she knows that no matter how many miscreants she clears off the street there will plenty more to take their places. At the same time, there is also bit of predetermined destiny hinted at in the film. Anna feels perhaps it was part of a plan all along and that she was chosen. Maybe there is something to it. Maybe that’s why Anna has lived as long as she has. Maybe God wants her to do some dirty work.

But most of all, I think Anna’s plight strikes a chord with me because what she is doing is selfless. She isn’t stopping bad guys for herself. She is doing it for society. Sure, her heart is cold, she’s full of rage and maybe the killings soothe her a bit. But she’ll be dead soon and she wont reap any benefits for having snuffed out those she has. My point is, Anna doesn’t want to be a hero. She’s just tired of being a victim. She’s tired of being a charity case. She’s tired of hiding her pain. She doesn’t want others to suffer in life as she has. She knows her plane is going down. Instead of choosing to have the seat next to her filled with a loved one that she can say goodbye to or someone that could possible save her, she’s filling her plane with as many scumbag passengers as possible to pull them down with her. It’s quite the juncture and a great fantasy. Realistically, it’s not the choice I’d make put in her situation, but I can respect Anna Carter and I surely wouldn’t stand in her way. May she have a happy crash down.

- CCF, August 2008