Another independent film with a good reputation goes straight to video in
the UK but unfortunately (unlike’May’) doesn’t quite live up to the
acclaim.
Director Mark Anthony Galluzzo loosely remakes Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rope’
for the st Century as renowned slacker Nick ‘The Prick’ Collier (Rick
Otto) decides to throw a party in honour of his best friend Jim who has
recently graduated and leaves to begin his career in the morning.
Unfortunately for the friends Nick has finally planned to finish
something…….THEM!!
Whilst the film is undeniably cleverly constructed, the required scenes of
lengthy exposition become tiresome after a while, and you find yourself
waiting for the characters to be killed.
Aesthetically pleasing in every sense of the word, the film does entertain
once the killing starts, but the score weakens the effects of the kills as
it lacks the required kick it needs. In fact the only time we get an
origional score and not just a collection of hits from the likes of
Madness, is in the final chase scene and it only demonstrates how much it
improves the suspense.
Another peeve is the fact that Majandra Delfino is second billed in the
trailer and doesn’t appear until minutes into the film!! Also Jason
Mewes feels out of place here and appears to be acting as himself, which
took me out of it. Despite these minor quibbles it must be said that the
film does have a very good cast and it was nice to see Glenn Quinn in his
final role before he tragically died.
In all R.S.V.P is a bold experiment and thankfully the team tried to do
something different, it’s just a shame that they made so much of a deal
about Hithchcock, as audiences will expect a level of suspense that only
Hitchcock could ever achieve.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Though I respect Mark Anthony Galluzzo’s ambition he may have made a fatal
error by comparing his film to those of ‘the master of suspense’.
