Every sin comes with a price
Swift shot: While not a professional feature film, there is a raw complexity that makes this one watchable, despite some mediocre acting and unbelievably pedestrian dialog. Sarah Cooper and Javon Johnson were exceptional stand-outs in an otherwise amateur cast and production team. Still, I was roommates with one of the supporting actors, so I can’t completely trash this. And, truth be told, it will find harsher critics than I, but even the harshest critics will be able to find something praiseworthy . . . the stories.
Rendezvous is a film about three separate couples, meeting in hotel rooms for affairs of differing natures. One couple is incredibly asexual, with hair, dialog, and delivery to match their mechanically mundane relationship. Carolyn (Lesley Warren) has arranged a special series of surprises for her apathetic partner, Scott (Dorian Alexis Santiago) who has an agenda of his own that is immediately apparent, if you pay attention to his body language.
The next couple is made up of a pair of thirty something lovers who it is evident have shared a sorted past, but for no apparent reason that is ever truly explained, wound up apart. Devin (Javon Johnson) is a strong character, a loving father, a supportive husband and an almost genuinely like-able character, but his rendezvous tonight is not his lovely wife, it is his emotionally scarred, off and on again flame, Nicole (Sarah Cooper) who goes through a roller coaster ride of love, lust, shame, pride and guilt in one dramatic evening.
Finally, the third couple is a more common type of affair you might expect in this digital age. It’s clear almost immediately that they met on a website promoting affairs and other sexual appetites for people looking to step out of the confinement of normalcy. Thing is, being abnormal is so normal these days, that old fashioned types are now the freaks. Still, Antonio (Joao Bounassar) and his web-mistress Candice (Stephanie Smeltzer) are all about fucking, and I use that word deliberately, because if fucking offends you, couple three is going to downright disgust you. If their acting were any better, maybe it wouldn’t have been so vile watching them be dirty, dirty is an appropriate description of the whole film really, and Director/Writer/Producer Duane Dixon does a fine job of displaying the filth of each relationship in varying degrees of intensity.
Each couple is in for a rough night, and each starts out with high hopes of simply a magical evening – granted, they all have their own definition of what magic is; however ultimately it is about getting their rocks off. But, as I mentioned in the tag line, they are sinners, and they all eventually pay for their sins.
What I really liked about Rendezvous was that I knew nothing about it, save that my buddy was in it, playing Tristan who adds an element to the film that takes it from melodramatic to dramatic . . . in more ways than one. Sadly, he was under used by Duane Dixon, and yes, I am biased, but I also wouldn’t pull any punches if I thought my friend sucked. He didn’t. Still, getting back on point, I liked how the stories built into a crescendo of retribution. I pretended that I was Satan, watching these little marionettes grind into one another, trying to satiate some missing thing that would finally make them whole, as if sex alone would fill the void . . . all the while knowing that in the end, I would watch them all crumble in dark despair.
If the acting were better by the majority of the players, I could see giving this a few extra half stars, and if there wasn’t any Jazz music. Hey, that is my opinion, take it or leave it, I am no fan of Jazz and leading with it made me feel like I was watching a bad Red Shoe Diaries at first. But, if you can get past that first opening sequence, and you are a bit of a sadist, you may enjoy watching this morality play unfold. Maybe you’ll even take something from it, because while they are all sinners, every one of them, yes, even Tristan has a reason for their actions that is grounded in personal sadness and despair.
Scott is driven by more than love or passion, his is a different kind of lust. Carolyn just wants to be really loved, by anyone, even if it might be a lie. Devin wants to prove that he is in control of everything, that he can balance his good and dark sides, all while trying to be heroic in his own mind. Nicole wants to prove to herself that she matters, that she is worthy of Devin and her mother’s love. Candice is ashamed that she has sexual desires that she could never explain to her straight-laced husband. Antonio is driven by self-gratification and also wants to control both sides of his life, and even Tristan (Maurice Chevalier) has gone through life with a chip because he too can’t find acceptance from those he loves.
No matter; Satan sits laughing, loving their loss – and in the end, he is paid in full.
